Her Changing Ways
by xTheo
Summary: One-shot but several parts long, story of the changes Helga goes through on her way to becoming a better person, for herself, her family and her beloved.


Part 1

Gertie had never been considered a normal person. From a young age she'd developed a myriad of life-style habits that nobody in their right minds would ever adhere to. And it didn't stop at life either, goodness no. It was written out in a long, formal list that her funeral would be luau themed, with everyone wearing the brightest clothing they could find under grass skirts and leis. With the hearse passing her bejewelled urn that contained her ashes in a conga-line, plenty of delicacies and Hawaiian punch, an ice-sculpture of her when she'd taken up figure-skating and someone playing jolly music on the grand piano she loved.

So when she was found in her rocking chair in the early hours of a Sunday morning by a worried Phil, dead, a few formalities and the plan for her funeral were immediately set into motion over the next few days.

Arnold sat in his room, red-eyed and itching in his overly-starched black suit with what felt like a huge hole missing from his heart. It had been a normal weekend, but he'd gone to Gerald's for a sleepover the night before and had to be driven back home by a weeping Ernie. Phil was downstairs next to his wife with the most defeated look in his solemn eyes that Arnold couldn't bear it any longer. He high-tailed it up here to his bedroom, away from the sympathetic words and stares amid a far-past inappropriate setting.

When he heard a knock sounding he answered with a croaky 'Come in.' and watched the door open slowly to reveal a girl who'd known and irked him senselessly since pre-k. She wore what looked similar to her usual outfit only everything was black, and the pink bow was missing. It just made him want to cry more to see something else he considered constant and stable in his life gone.

"H-hey football head. Your grandpa asked me to come get you, he says the speeches are starting and you wanted to say something too?"

"Y-yeah, I wanted to thank everyone for coming and those who helped organise the reception. I'll be down in a minute."

Helga nodded, a frown crossing her features for a few moments before she took another step into the doorway. "You know… Arnold. If there's ever anything you wanna talk about… well, I'm around."

It sounded more awkward that she wanted it to be, she thought as she tugged at one of her drooping pigtails nervously. "I'm just… sorry, for your loss."

Arnold nodded and watched her retreat, then got up and took a deep breath before having to join everyone again.

The funeral procession moved to the pier where her ashes were tipped out into the ocean, as she'd so intended. Then everyone said their final goodbyes and left Phil, Arnold and the other boarders to walk back home. It seemed a few people wanted to come back and help them clean up, Lila, because she'd always been nice and helpful in any way she could be, Phoebe, because she'd been half-raised in a traditional household that taught the values of helping the host, and who knows why Helga wanted to come back and clean up, she was probably just tagging along with Phoebe, Arnold thought.

With the three girls and everyone who lived there helping, the house was soon clean. Lila hugged him and whispered soothing but nonsensical words in his ear about God's wishes to have Gertie with him in heaven, while Phoebe bowed formally and said "Gommen nasai. Truly I'm sorry that this is all I could do to help ease your pain."

But Helga just crossed her arms and shook her head. "See ya round at school Arnoldo. And that offer I gave earlier, I guess it still stands."

She contemplated hugging him, even reached out her hands to almost grip his shoulders. But at the frightened expression on his face and sharp intake of breath she paused, then decided against it and her arms dropped. She turned on her heel and slammed the door behind her, running to catch up to Phoebe and rolling her eyes at Lila.

Today had given him a lot to think about. All the memories of his grandmother were swimming on the surface of his conscious brain as he stared at his ceiling out into the blue sky. There was also a very slight twinge of feeling over the fact that his bully had been nice all week. She'd come over to visit him every day, albeit it was with Mr Simmons and the rest of their class, and not said a mean thing to him the entire time. That particular thought would be tucked away later for further contemplation.

"Arnold?"

"Yeah Grandpa?"

The door opened and Phil stepped in, looking like he'd aged 10 years in the space of 3 days. His back hunched over more than usual as he groaned while pulling off the black tweed coat and revealing his normal brown pants with red suspenders and a white shirt underneath. "Hey shortman, now that the funeral's over I have something to give you. Honestly it's been on my mind for a year but, well, Pookie and I just never got round to it."

He carried a cardboard box to the bed his grandson lay on and left it at his feet. "These are some things that were left by your parents. I wanted you to be old enough to treat them with care, and you are now. Just let me say a bit more and then I'll leave you to see to them how you want."

Arnold's interest was immediately piqued. "You wanted to talk about something else important, Grandpa?"

Phil simply nodded, a tired look in his eyes appearing as he looked up at the skylight. "I just wanted you to know that we love you with all our hearts Arnold. Pookie and me, we were set to leave this world at a much earlier age than this. Your parents never coming back and you needing us around, well, that's what kept us going, gave us that little extra life-juice..."

Grandpa no! Don't talk like you're gonna go soon as well. I need you…"

Arnold teared up again, the box forgotten, and hugged his grandpa's stomach while the old man chuckled. "None of us know when we're gonna be called up by you know who my boy. Pookie was struck by the grim reaper's lightning bolt pointer and it could be me next. But just so you know, I made sure in case I kicked the bucket too soon that you would go with the Johannsen's. They'll gladly keep you, and you'd be happy living with that boy Gerald right? Our life insurance pay-out would be enough for you to live off for the rest of your life. Unless you wanted to live in extravagance, in which case sorry."

Most of his grandpa's words passed through his ears with not a lot of understanding, but he heard the main part of the message. "I'm glad you think I'm mature enough to handle this talk Grandpa. But I think I've heard enough, do you need me for anything around the house?"

"No shortman, you just have fun with your little box and I'll check that Mr Hyunh and Suzie finished packing away all the leftovers. We'll be having club-sandwiches and little hotdogs for dinner tonight… probably breakfast and lunch tomorrow as well." He chuckled a bit more and left the room, leaving Arnold alone to stare at the box curiously.

"Well… here goes nothing."

He unfolded the flaps and took each item out one by one, laying them on his bed. There was a very old baseball mitt and ball, signed by Miles himself and a bunch of other people with their ages written underneath. Arnold deduced that the ball was scribbled on by him and his childhood friends, they were all either 9 or 10 years old at the time just like him.

There was a photo of a baseball player and a blonde boy with a black cap on. The photo was faded but on the back it was written 'Me and Dave Chatler, black sox pitcher 1973 home game win 64-53. Best day ever!'

It was his dad with a baseball player, Arnold would have guessed his favourite based on the look of admiration on the young boy's face. He happened to have a framed photo exactly like it of himself and Mickey Kaline at the home game last season, and they'd also won.

Then there was a book about archaeology, he'd definitely read that later. And also a magnifying glass and several brushes. The last two items were books, and he opened the bigger one to reveal a photo album. More specifically, it contained hundreds of photos of Miles and Stella as children, playing together, or what looked more like fighting actually as the frowns and sad expressions on Mile's face and grins of mischievous joy on Stella's face told. They seemed to be in the same class together and they were part of a big group of friends. Looking back at the ball Arnold realised Stella had also signed it but added a face poking its tongue out next to her signature. As he turned the pages they grew older and then they were mutually happy. A teenaged couple holding hands and hugging each other with goofy grins. His eyes widened in joy when he reached the section of their adventures. There were the pictures of them in the rainforest, climbing endlessly tall trees and standing at the top of precarious canyons. There was the single-engine plane he wanted to fly with them that they leaned against with a Hispanic man wearing a wide-brimmed hat. There were pictures of smiling dark-skinned villagers surrounding them after they'd probably just finished doing something to help save the village and make it prosper.

It was all there in colour. Proof that his parents had indeed been good samaritans like his grandparents said before, proof that they went on adventures and were probably still on one now, one that they were trapped in and needed rescuing from. He hugged the album to his chest tightly, tucking it in his bookshelf next to the photo album of him as a baby with his parents and then him growing up. Grandma always made sure to record the special moments, it was one of the things he'd always loved about her. He picked up the smaller, thinner book and read the inside of the front cover.

'Miles Shortman, Dec 10th 1988… he started writing this just before I was born!' Arnold thought excitedly, eagerly beginning the story. Miles wrote in a small but neat script, filling up the pages with words. He tore through the journal and lost himself in the daily entries.

'December 12th 1988 We've been deep in the jungles of San Lorenzo for 5 days now. No sign of civilisation and we've travelled for miles. Heh, miles…'

'December 14th 1988 After trekking to the top of Mt Javena a breath-taking sight could be seen. Their village lay on the inside of the dormant volcano. My word, I'm still speechless to describe the view today…'

'January 26th 1988 It took weeks to earn the villager's trust and they finally untied us and allowed to sleep in their huts. They've been having trouble apparently, with an outsider who goes by the name "La Sombra". A villainous name if I ever heard one, he's looking for this hidden village and seeks to take over San Lorenzo. Foolish man, I feel we gained the people's trust by helping them chase him away earlier. I'm going hunting tomorrow with the strongest group of men here, I hope I don't make too much of a fool out of myself…'

'February 3rd 1988 Life has taken a turn for the better in this quiet little village. Had we no family in Hillwood to return to this would be home. It is home actually. But I'm worried about Stella, her moods have been all over the place. Yesterday she bawled when me and the other hunters brought back our wild pig that was served for dinner that night. She didn't speak to me all of that evening as we sat around the fire. But it was also the hottest night the jungle had ever seen, and I'm not talking Centigrade. Stella was unbelievably beautiful and decided to come to me wearing nothing but a smile…'

'February 12th 1988 Today Stella told me she was pregnant! I'm overwhelmed with happiness, but at the same time worried. The jungle isn't a safe place for people, let alone my unborn progeny…'

'April 17th 1988 Tales around the bonfire resulted in some interesting information about the village treasures. One spoke of a talisman that can be used to summon and speak with animals, owned by a famous spirit of the forest. She was half-woman, half-jaguar, allied with the green-eyes and the most fearsome warrior they'd ever seen. They called her La Javena Diablo, or the devil of Mt Javena. It seems the village has been keeping a mysterious jewel well-hidden from the rest of the world and it was what La Sombra was after. He has the money and resources to be considered a serious threat, so long as we stay vigilant though he won't get past us…'

'October 5th 1988 The volcanic eruption was fierce, terrifying and beautiful at the same time. We thought we were all going to die down there, me, Stella and our yet to be born son Arnold. But then his body descended from his mother and I held him above my head. My little boy let out a small gasp, his first breath of life, and in that instant the eruption ceased taking place. The calm of the earth after that was wondrous and we have only our miracle child to thank for that. The villagers can't stop singing praises to him. 'Santo!' they yell out as Stella passes with baby Arnold tucked away in his sling. They call him the blessed child...'

'November 21st 1989 We returned home in time for thanksgiving and have moved in with Mom and Dad at the boarding house. Arnold is such a sweet-tempered baby, his personality and hair reminds me of myself, but he also has an adventurous streak and those beautiful green eyes just like his mother…'

'October 2nd 1991 Eduardo arrived unannounced at our doorstep. He bore bad news of the villagers, who've been overcome with what is only known as the mysterious sleeping sickness. I feel for the green-eyes, truly, but I'm uneasy about leaving Arnold here with Mom and Dad. Stella is adamant on going though, and I'll admit that I am too for they helped us in our most desperate time of need so we can't do anything other than return the favour. We're going to miss Mom and Dad and of course Arnold while we're gone…'

And the last page was a large-scale map of South America, with San Lorenzo and Mt Javena clearly marked. His head reeled back in shock as he placed the book down. This book documented Miles and Stella's last moments before they left him. They were still in the jungle somewhere, waiting to be found!

And he allowed that information to sink further into his brain, all the way down as he stared at the night sky through his skylight, ate his cornflakes in a dazed silence, walked to the bus-stop and almost collided with Gerald who'd been frantically waving at him without being noticed.

"Hey man! Don't space out like that."

"Oh! Sorry Gerald."

Gerald shook his head and led him by the shoulder over to the empty bench for them to sit. "You feeling okay today brother? I don't want you bursting into tears or anything during class now…"

He rolled his eyes at said comment, forcing himself back to the real world with a small grin. "Nah, I'm fine Gerald but thanks for caring…"

They jumped on the bus and sat together in the back, chatting amicably until the bus lurched to a stop and the two usual girls got on, Helga and Phoebe. While Phoebe spotted Gerald and waved, making said boy blush and glare at the huge smirk on Arnold's face, Helga rolled her eyes and followed behind her best friend to sit in the seats in front of the boys.

"Good morning Gerald and Arnold." Phoebe greeted sweetly.

"Football head, Tall-hair boy." Helga sunk into her chair and looked pointedly away from them with her legs crossed. While Phoebe and Gerald got to talking the other two stayed silent. It was only when Arnold took a deep breath in and tapped the blonde girl's shoulder causing her to lurch forwards did he choose to speak up. "U-um, sorry Helga."

"Criminy football-head! Why do you feel the need to make me have a heart-attack like that?"

"I didn't mean it, honestly!"

She rolled her eyes and twisted around in her seat, propping an elbow at the top of her seat back. "So what did you mean Arnoldo? Seriously, what's the big idea in disturbing my space in the first place?"

'Just ignore the bad attitude' he told himself, leaning closer to her ear so only she would hear his words. "Yesterday you said if I ever needed to I could talk to you, like if I needed help or something. Can I still hold you to that word?"

Her expression looked shocked beyond belief at first. Eyes widening, jaw dropping, her pigtails even drooped down in surprise. But after shaking her head a few times she simply nodded. "Meet me in the janitor's closet as soon as we get to school. It's my office."

"I need help finding my parents…"

He explained the story to her, pulled out the journal from his backpack even and showed her a few pages to prove everything he was saying was real. At first, an air of melancholy descended upon her usually smug face. It brightened when he asked her what was wrong, but she just shook her head.

"It's nothing important Arnoldo. But you've told your story and now listen. Bucko, you so happen to be in good luck because I know about a competition that could get you, the whole class in fact, a trip to San Lorenzo." She pulled out the folded up flyer she'd had in her backpack and handed it to Arnold, the smug grin now returned to her face. He slowly read the advertisement before a huge smile graced his own features as he looked up at her. "This is… perfect!"

Part 2

Arnold shifted in his seat for the hundredth time that morning, staring at the doorway. Class had just started and was looking to be a normal day with no anticipated arrival by Principal Wartz. He'd been at the edge of his seat, figuratively and literally, for the last two weeks now. "Well class today I thought we'd learn more about fractions!" Mr Simmons stated, to which the class responded with a collective groan. "Now if you'd take out your math books and turn to page 73…"

There was a knock at the door before it opened halfway and the principal's head stuck through. "Sorry to bother you Robert but I need to make a statement to your class."

"Oh, no problem Principal Wartz come in." He stepped aside and allowed the school's principal to come to the front of the room before clearing his throat loudly and addressing them with his usual monotonous tone. "While my daily announcements over the intercom have already finished I needed to speak to this class personally, or one student, Arnold Shortman, in particular." He paused, waiting as everyone turned back in their seats to stare at the boy who was completely focused on the principal's words. When the class turned to face him again, he continued. "A month ago Arnold you submitted a 1000-word essay about a place you really wanted to go to, the San Lorenzo jungle in South America, to the school-board of Chicago's largest charity-fund 'Helping kids explore' who were holding a competition that underprivileged school pupils could enter. They judged your work and said it to be of exceptional quality and so you've won. Congratulations."

Arnold jumped out of his seat with a huge smile on his face. "Principal Wartz, thank you so much!" He ran to the front and hugged the principal, who sheepishly accepted before backing out of the classroom. "It's a school fieldtrip deal. Your whole class, Robert, will be heading to the San Lorenzo jungle in South America in 3 days. Fully-funded, with a grant to buy some extras like camping equipment, tents and from what I know they'll even throw in a tour-guide. Have fun."

"What, you mean we're heading into the jungle too?" Rhonda asked, looking horrified. "There's no electricity or running water there! How will I be able to use my hair straightener or charge my phone?"

"Oh it won't be that bad Rhonda. I personally can't wait to explore the jungle and find some reclusive species of arachnids. They have spiders in South America whose legs grow up to three feet in length!" Nadine replied, making everybody shudder. "I'll find it intellectually stimulating. We never get to see enough outside the city so it would definitely be an educational experience learning about the cultures of the villages there." Phoebe chimed in. "I don't know; I'd be too afraid of getting eaten by leopards or something." Sid said, curling up into a ball with his white heeled boots lifted up to his chair. "Boy howdy it sounds like it'll be a dag!" Stinky added, leaning back in his chair and laughing.

"I'm gonna pack as many snacks as I can in case I get hungry and we run out of food." Harold was the first to leave the classroom that had been dismissed by Mr Simmons earlier. He'd left them to go print up the permission slips and supply lists leaving the most responsible person, Arnold, in charge. "Well, I'll need to double up on my medical supplies for my first-aid kit, who knows what's gonna happen to me there." Eugene thought, getting up to leave and immediately banging his knee across Sheena's desk. "Ow! It's fine, only a small bruise."

"Oh Eugene. I'm going outside to wait for my parents so why don't I walk with you…" Sheena got up and left watching the clumsy curly-haired ginger lead their way out. "Well, this does sound like it will be ever so much fun. I'll need to tell daddy straight away…" were Lila's parting words as she left the classroom behind Sheena. The only person who hadn't said anything about this trip was Brainy, although the faint sound of heavy breathing resounded through the hallways as he quietly made his leave. "Assuming all our parents let us go on this trip, I'm gonna need to pick up some serious supplies, and something to cover my hair so bugs don't crawl in or something else really gross. You coming man?"

"I'll be with you in a sec Gerald, wait for me outside?" After a second's hesitation the dark-skinned boy shrugged and left the room. Arnold moved to the desks in the back where Helga and Phoebe were chatting away amicably. When Arnold neared them though he saw Helga's spine suddenly straighten and her smile turned to a scowl. "Whaddya want football-head? Can't you see me and Pheebs are talking?"

"Sorry to bother you Helga, but I was wondering if I could talk to you alone? I hope you don't mind Phoebe."

"Oh it's no bother Arnold. I'll be outside waiting to walk home with you Helga." Phoebe had a small twinkle that neither blonde could interpret as she left them alone in the otherwise empty classroom. Helga let out a small grunt and crossed her arms across her chest as she leaned back in her seat and watched him sit in Phoebe's usual spot. "Make it snappy bucko, I haven't got all day!"

Last month when Grandma had passed and during the funeral he'd seen a side of Helga that had never seen before. She'd spoken softly and nicely to him the whole time, offered to help clean up and didn't pick on him or call him names once. She'd proven his theory to him that she wasn't as mean as she pretended to be, and actually had the potential to be nice. One thing had permanently changed in his favour and it was the lack of physical bullying. She hadn't shot spit-balls at him, tripped him up or squirted water at him since before they found out about Gertie. It worried him at first, but when he asked she simply said "yeah football head I stopped picking on you. Big deal, now buzz off!" and he realised she still very much disliked him but was going about things in a different way. It annoyed him for some reason, like he wished she'd pay him some form of attention, even if it had to be bullying. Arnold thought he must be insane to miss his bully, but he'd always been an oddball…

And there was also the fact that she gave him the flyer that advertised the essay-writing competition in the first place. He'd written the draft for "My dream adventure, San Lorenzo" in a week on his computer. She'd come over one time, checked it over, replaced or rephrased some words or sentences, did a full grammar and spell check (sometimes the computer missed things) essentially restructured the story but kept the main points of it together, and within 3 hours she allowed Arnold to read it and see how brilliant she was at creative writing.

"I just wanted to thank you for helping me write my essay. If it weren't for you I probably wouldn't have won the competition so… uuuh, yeah. Thanks."

"Whatever Arnoldo, I knew your lame excuse for an essay wasn't gonna win any awards so I made it award-winning. I have you in my favour now, and don't think I won't collect when I need to, coz I will." Arnold frowned at her sly grin before standing up. "I owe you one Helga, I'll admit that. But you can't make me do anything unreasonable like being your slave. Unless you want a repeat of the April Fool's day fiasco last year."

She blanched at the brought up memory, as a sudden image of them dancing the tango, noses pressed closely together, came to mind. Turning away from him to hide the growing blush she lifted her nose haughtily in the air. "Whatever football head. Don't overthink that favour I did you because it'll never happen again. Now get out of my sight loser!"

Sighing, Arnold stood up and left to go find Gerald. "Took your time brother." Gerald commented as he leaned on the steps outside the main school entrance. "Yeah, I was caught up looking for… wait, where's my journal?!" Arnold tipped out his backpack and its contents spilled out, a few measly school books, small pencil case, water bottle and empty lunchbox. His father's journal definitely wasn't with him.

When he ran back inside with Gerald in tow he saw Helga sitting at her desk again, staring at a pink notebook with a blank expression. He also saw something on his desk that made his blood run cold. There, on top of a heaping pile of off-white printed paper ripped to indiscernible pieces was the thin leather external of his father's journal. He ran to it and snatched up the cover, looking between it and the scraps of paper with a whimper of despair. "What… why…"

Gerald was gobsmacked for a second but carefully collected the pile of paper. "Oh god Arnold, is this what's left of the journal? What kind of sick monster would do this…" but they both stared at the far back of the classroom where their tormentor of almost 6 years sat. She was the most likely culprit, especially with how nonchalant she seemed. Arnold wanted to destroy the entire classroom out of rage. He couldn't even speak, watching Helga stand up and tuck the pink notebook under her arm before walking towards him with an expression full of secrecy. "That was your father's journal right? It's ruined now. Sorry…" Arnold was still speechless, struggling to come to terms with the fact that the girl he'd thought was actually kinda, sorta nice, was still the plain old heartless bully that would destroy other people's possessions for no good reason.

And she kept that level-headed gaze while leaving, even though as soon as she was outside the tears slipped out of her eyes and trailed down her cheeks. Phoebe said nothing about her tearful silence. She knew her best friend well, how asking about it wouldn't work and all she needed was comfort. So they walked to the Heyerdahl's residence, went straight up to Phoebe's bedroom and she preceded to put one of the terribly cheesy zombie movies Helga left there during their last sleepover on while the blonde cried, curled up next to her best friend with cheese puffs and cookie dough ice-cream.

"Pataki's a real bitch when she wants to be. Are you going to be okay?" Gerald had witnessed the whole thing and couldn't begin to understand how destroyed his friend must feel on the inside, even though he had a small suspicion that he didn't know the whole story. Arnold nodded, wiping the last few tears away as he stared at the pile of paper they were trying to salvage with sticky tape. It really was no use now, and with every failed attempt at restoring even just one page there had been too much damage done. "I'm a mess Gerald, what should I do?"

The African-American boy sighed, throwing an arm over the smaller boy's shoulder. "I don't know brother, but well… it's Helga. You've let her get away with a lot of things, but she really has crossed the line this time, and stomped on it for good measure. Only a truly despicable human being could do something like that, if I were you… I'd cut her out of my life."

Arnold nodded. "I'm really sad, angry too. If I explain to the other guys they'll help me right?"

"Definitely. As far as you're concerned she no longer exists, I'll give her as cold a shoulder as I can manage… although, Phoebe…"

"Phoebe's fine, she didn't do anything. I really wish more than anything it didn't come to this but she needs to be taught a lesson."

And to think, they'd been progressing so well… Arnold considered glumly. Just the very thought of that sneering face with blonde pigtails he imagined sticking up like devil-horns, it was met with the consuming urge to punch a wall and then cry some more.

That night as Phoebe slept in her bed, Helga curled up in her sleeping bag on the ground and continued reading from her pink journal. The contents of the pink book definitely didn't look like they should be there. The writing was small and neat, unlike her loopy scrawl, and the ink wasn't its usual pink but black and smudgy, like it was written in charcoal. There were interesting daily passages all about the lives of a man and his wife in the San Lorenzo jungle, the birth of their miracle-child, a brief stay in Hillwood and then it ended with a map. She shook her head slightly, thinking that even though it didn't matter now, if he'd added even a small portion of this in his essay he would've hands down won. Personal experiences and reasons in persuasive speeches won almost every time, especially with intentions so pure as Arnold's.

The pages had a plastic inner-spine that had been melted and reset, keeping them intact. She simply had to rip out the previous pages and put these new ones in. Luckily they were the right size, and also luckily she'd torn her previous pages to shreds the night before (it was one of her earliest volumes of poetry anyways, terrible stuff, no loss there).

While deep down Helga knew she had some good, she was not privy to being heartless and cruel at times. This was one of those moments, lying to Arnold was something she did every day, no biggie. But the magnitude of this particular lie was great, and although her exact words were ambiguous to whether or not she had actually lain hands on the former pages Arnold had, it was implied heavily that she destroyed the journal. So the next few days it would be implied that he hated her guts, even if he never said it. Not like she still held the small semblance of hope that Arnold would return her feelings ever, gods no. He would hate her, and then she would make it better. Maybe they could go back to the way they always were, with her being nasty and him trying to figure her out.

She would use the journal to find his parents for him while he stayed safe with the class. She would help him as she'd always done, and always would do. For all the things Arnold had done for her, it was the least Helga could do after all.

Part 3

Three days later found the true start of a brand new adventure for Arnold and his friends. They were heading to the San Lorenzo jungle, their plane loaded with necessary supplies but a vast majority of it was Rhonda's clothing. Who even knows how she managed to sneak ten times her limit past customs, having a rich daddy probably resulted in a lot of perks when it came to international flying…

"Can you believe it? We're actually going to find your parents!" Gerald shook his friends shoulder but frowned as it was immediately shrugged off by the glaring blonde boy on his left. To his right was Phoebe, the only other source of polite conversation and joy in their row, and then Helga, staring out the window with a blank expression. Arnold was specifically glaring at Helga, even while his head was turned the opposite direction Gerald knew he was only angry at one person. He lowered his voice a little so as not to be heard by the two girls and elbowed his best friend. "Dude! I know you're still annoyed at what happened but you need to focus on the task at hand. We're here now, with or without your dad's journal. And as soon as we can we'll sneak off together and trek through the forest on our own. Think about the stories we can tell the other kids when we get back though…" he smiled dreamily, drifting off into a vacant land while thinking about how he could exaggerate himself as the daring adventurer with his sidekick Arnold by his side, tearing through thick undergrowth with his machete and fighting pirates who were hiding their stolen treasure somewhere deep in the jungle…

A huge jolt from sudden turbulence snapped him out of his daydream and he hurriedly snapped on his seatbelt. From somewhere in the back aisle he heard the drawn out groan of Eugene. "Ooowwwww…. The overhead carrier just opened on my head." Eugene stood up and immediately fainted again into the waiting arms of Sheena. "Oh dear, poor Eugene…" Lila commented as she watched Sheena tend to him as best as she could and called out for an ice-bag. "HAAAAHAA!" Harold, Stinky and Sid laughed at his misfortune. Their merriment didn't last long though before another jolt sent them crashing into each-other. "That's what you get for not putting your seatbelts on…" Nadine commented, turning a page of the book she was currently immersed in about the life-cycle of butterflies. "Rhonda, you still awake?"

"Of course Nadine, I'm deciding which safari-girl outfit I'm going to wear first. You'll need to be ready with the camera as I make my grand exit from the plane door." Nadine rolled her eyes at this and glanced over at the quietest row in the plane at the front containing two blondes and two black-haired students. Well, it was the quietest row if you didn't count Brainy and surprisingly Lila who were sitting next to all of Rhonda's extra luggage in the very back. She also caught sight of Curly next to her right ear and moved down one seat towards the window, allowing him to fall with a thud between her and Rhonda. "Ma cheríé, it looks like we will be able to spend the rest of the flight together. You can lean on me to sleep any time you wish…" it was followed by a kissy face that immediately made Rhonda want to throw up. She let out a howl of disgust and ran to the bathroom.

"Everyone seems to be a little restless. Is there anything we can do to occupy the class Mr Simmons?" Phoebe asked the teacher. "Well, there's always road trip songs… Come on class!" He pulled out his guitar and started strumming. "Kumbaya my lord, Kumbaya…."

At first nobody cared to listen and carried on with their antics. But when Phoebe started singing along, Gerald joined in, then Sheena and Eugene and eventually almost the whole class caught on. Even Brainy let out a warbled humming noise to let them know he was trying to sing. The only two people who didn't get caught up in the music were Arnold and Helga, who were still occupied in their thoughts of dislike and hidden guilt.

The last three hours of their eight-hour flight ended with all the students drifting to sleep. Mr Simmons smiled, glad to see their sweet sleeping faces as it meant he was allowed some time to himself. He went into the cockpit to talk to the pilot and was told they would be landing in less than twenty minutes in fact, so he had to sit back down again and prepare for the descent.

The plane landed nicely and the students woke up with a gentle nudge each from Mr Simmons. He waited for the pilot to push open their door and the two adults began on the supplies. Two adults and 14 kids' worth of supplies was a lot, but they'd be carrying their own packs and there was also a trailer, it should be doable with the amount of hiking they had planned. Arnold was the first after the two adults to get outside of the plane and he immediately stretched after the cramped journey. Looking into the distance he saw a tall man with dark-hair coming their way. Upon closer inspection Arnold spotted the khaki shirt and trousers he wore over a white shirt, also with a khaki hat. He looked to be Hispanic and when Mr Simmons greeted him politely and asked if he was their guide for the forest he nodded and spoke with a thick accent. "My name is Eduardo Henriquez and welcome to San Lorenzo! I know who you are Mr Simmons. But this young man next to you… well, you look very much like the child of a couple who were my very dear friends. Would your name be Arnold?"

The boy's eyes widened in shock. "I'm Arnold Short-man! Did you know my parents, Miles and Stella?"

Eduardo smiled and patted the boy's shoulder. "I only met you once, when you were a baby, but I'll never forget such a uniquely shaped head and the eyes of the forest."

He patted Arnold's head and grabbed the trailer filled with luggage as the rest of the students gathered around them. "Come Arnold and friends, we have much to discuss…"

There was no customs checkout here, the airport was a fenced off strip of concrete and they flashed their passports to the toll-officer as they walked past him with their stuff. From there they headed straight into the jungle with no signs of civilization in sight. Well, they were only spending three days here so it was best to get straight into the camping right?

While hiking Eduardo chatted to all of them, but he paid special attention to Arnold who wanted to know everything that Eduardo knew about his parents. By the two-hour mark he was almost finished telling how they met and what they were doing together the first time Miles and Stella came to the jungle. "I think this clearing will do nicely. We shall set up camp here."

Harold plopped down on the ground, every inch of his skin red and sweaty from the over-exertion of walking. The only other student who looked in bad-shape was Brainy, but that was because of his severe asthma. He breathed in several times with his purple inhaler before calming himself down and the students looked to Eduardo and Mr Simmons expectantly. "Well, now begins our impromptu lesson on how to set up camp so get in groups of 2 or 3 and get your tent."

Harold, Stinky and Sid stuck together and got one of the slightly bigger, orange tents. All three were scratching their heads staring at the numerous poles of different lengths jumbled up in one green and one orange canvas. Brainy was paired up with Eugene and technically Curly, no matter what he claimed about sleeping outside of Rhonda's tent, and they were having just as much trouble with their purple and grey tent, while Rhonda and Nadine had forgone setting up altogether and had somehow conned Mr Simmons and Eduardo into doing it for them. They'd chosen the pink and red tent since it was the prettiest.

That left Gerald and Arnold, Helga and Phoebe and Lila and Sheena as the only pairs with the smaller two man tents, blue for the boys and red and yellow for the girls. There was also Mr Simmons who had his own tent while Eduardo planned to sleep under the stars. Shrugging nonchalantly Helga picked up all the pieces and with Phoebe's help they built their tent in ten minutes flat. Shoving their packs into the tent Helga smirked at the rest of the class. "Look at all these slow-pokes Pheebs, I can't believe we managed to beat all of them."

"Helga, maybe we should go help them?" Phoebe suggested, only to be met with a disapproving snort. "As if, do what you want… I'm going somewhere not here…."

She stomped off into the jungle without another word. Nobody noticed her leave anyway, except for a still-glaring Arnold who heard the conversation and knew why Phoebe was coming over now, smiling and earning a gracious thanks from Gerald. "I can't believe she's that selfish. Why do you put up with someone like that Phoebe?"

Said girl looked up in surprise at his line of questioning. "That's an… unusually mean-spirited thing for you to say Arnold. Are you feeling okay?"

He didn't answer, and Gerald was left to explain why he was like that. "When we went back to find Arnold's dad's journal it was ripped to shreds. The only other person in class was Helga and she even said she did it."

At that information Phoebe recoiled in shock. "I can… understand why you'd be mad Arnold. I'm sorry on her behalf." They'd finished setting up their tent and all left to help the other groups. As she threaded the poles through the pink canvas slips of the girl's tent Phoebe couldn't help but speculate that it didn't sound like Helga at all though. She'd thought it best to ignore her best friend's tears that one afternoon, because they'd happened before and she recovered quickly anyways. But with a matter this serious, she may be forced to step in and ask what was wrong.

Lila and Sheena had actually finished second after Helga and Phoebe and were standing around Eduardo as he showed them how to use flint rocks to start a fire. When the sparks lit the small bundle of straw they were enraptured and asked to do it as well. Soon they had a lovely campfire and three big logs were rolled over to act as seats. "Okay class now we're going to be splitting up into groups. Wood-gathering, cooking and keeping track of and giving out supplies. Oh, we need someone to find water or we'll have to ration the bottles we have…"

"Actually, I've got us covered…" Helga stepped back through the bushes coming towards them with what looked like a fishing pole in each hand. There were two big fish dangling from each line that made all the kids ooh and aah as they gathered around her. Her smug grin widened and Arnold hated it. "I found a small stream and followed it about 300 metres northwest of here to a waterfall. There was some bamboo growing nearby and I know how to make fishing poles and string out of it and as for the fish… turns out gummy worms are just as effective a fish-bait as earth-worms."

"Looks like we're having fried fish tonight, Helga I'm very proud of you! Did you happen to see any dry wood around there? Who knew you'd be the best camper out of all of us?" Mr Simmons exclaimed brightly.

Not Arnold that's for sure, considering how she'd been when they had to stay in the greenhouse for his science project last year. The tents were set up so everyone walked to the waterfall and collective gasps ran out across their group at the beautiful sight of a river that spilled 50 metres down. The curtain of waterfall near the base would probably make a nice warm shower in the afternoon with the way the sun hit the boulders behind it, and it was so clear the bottom could be seen.

Only three hours until sundown and they were spent by the happy campers gathering as much supplies as they could. With a huge crackling fire and several sticks with lines of gutted and scaled salmon skewered over the top everyone was having fun and chatting up a storm. Campfire songs under the moonlight and twinkling stars, fried fish and then smores for dessert, scary stories under torchlight and finally a game of spotlight before everyone turned into their tents. Arnold really needed to pee so he left the tent undone and ran about 20 metres into a random direction in the jungle.

But it was a little hard to focus on peeing with the slight rustling of the bushes nearby. He'd just finished when he heard a twig break. Spinning around towards it, he noticed a shadow moving away from him. "Stinky, Sid or Harold you guys better not be messing with me!"

But the sounds disappeared, so it looked like they'd grown bored and didn't feel like scaring him anymore. Shrugging, he turned back towards camp, still marveling at how bright the moonlight was. It felt almost like walking around in the day, if it weren't for the long shadows drawn where the trees got too close on either side of him. He almost got back onto the path they'd treaded out heading straight to the waterfall when he heard splashing noises. It sounded like someone was swimming, but this late at night? A little concerned for whoever decided night-swimming was a good idea, Arnold headed towards the waterfall and poked his head through the bushes.

His eyes scanned the water hole but no-one could be seen swimming. When he peered closely into the trailing curtain of water though his heart stopped. For there, standing in the shower and looking to be naked was a girl. He could really only see her silhouette since she seemed to glow an ethereal blue under the moonlight. Thinking it must be a water-sprite or some magical creature, for humans never looked so beautiful, Arnold took a step forward and a twig cracked underneath his foot. The sprite turned towards him in shock before jumping off the rock and disappearing into watery depths. He ran to the edge and looked down but there was nothing but the clear bottom and bubbling brook. She'd vanished as if by magic, maybe she truly was a sprite.

Had he checked underneath the overhanging rock he stood on though, he might have spotted a pale, wet and shivering girl. And had he spotted the pink sweater-dress and white shirt hanging on a branch across the waterfall he would have known that it was Helga whose form he'd been ogling. Too bad he'd done neither of those things…

Part 4

The sun had yet to rise above the distant mountains when three people woke from their slumber. Arnold and Gerald quietly moved around in their tent, looking for their day-clothes and scrubbing the sleep from their faces. "It's 5am now, Eduardo should be waiting…" Arnold commented, shrugging on his pack and helping Gerald with his tangled hairnet and scarf. "Remind me what we're doing again?" Gerald asked, still droopy eyed as he tied up the laces of his hiking boots. When the two of them left their tent and saw a neatly rolled up sleeping bag they made their way towards the waterfall. "We're just going scouting up the mountain, the last place my parents wrote about was Mt Javena so we can't be that far off wherever they got lost."

"This jungle's really thick though, I couldn't see a rescue helicopter having much luck searching by air…" They came to an opening and saw Eduardo leaning by the water's edge filling up his canister. "Hey boys, you ready to get going?"

"Yeah we are. Where should we start?" Arnold asked. Eduardo took out his large-scale map of the area, using a pencil to mark out several spots around the base of the mountain. "Along the bottom are several abandoned temples while the top is nothing but bare rock. I've been across this area many times before, if anything at least you'll get to see some wonderful sights." With that said he rolled the map back up and smiled. They set off for the closest temple which was about 2 miles away and slightly uphill. They had about 4 hours to explore before the other kids woke up and then it would be time for breakfast.

Meanwhile back at camp another student was stirring. Helga rolled away from her previous position facing Phoebe before opening her eyes. "Mm, still too early…"

But she couldn't go back to sleep and sat up in her sleeping bag, with scruffy, matted hair tumbling down around her shoulders and dark bags under her eyes as she sniffled. "What I get for going to sleep with wet hair and staying up too long reading that journal. Ugh…" She rolled up her sleeping bag and slipped on her shoes without socks. Nobody could be at the waterfall this early so it would be a perfect time to bathe, even if the water was probably freezing.

Turns out there was a person, or people, there. She spotted Arnold with Gerald and Eduardo talking around an open map and immediately jumped behind the nearest tree. Straining her ears to catch the conversation, she caught the words "temple" and "bare rock" but not much else. They left across the rocks leading to the other side of the river, and while she wished she could follow them Helga just wasn't feeling up to it. Instead she leaned her head forward and allowed the water to wash over it just like last night. It was frigid and her skin felt the sharp bite of cold fire, but it was refreshing. She wrung the water out before using her fingers to untangle several knots, leaving her flowing mane in separated strands that would eventually be tied up into her usual pigtails. "I'll leave the bow in my pack, it'll just get snagged on something like yesterday." But without the support her pigtails would droop, oh well…

When she returned to camp it was to find Phoebe and Mr Simmons were up. "Good morning Helga, when did you wake up?"

"A little past 5" Helga admitted, "I can't sleep late in new places like this."

"I have to confess neither can I. The other kids will be woken up at 8 so you have an hour or two to do whatever you want." Mr Simmons said, throwing his own towel over his shoulder. "Is it okay if we walk to the top of the hill Mr Simmons? In the mornings I like to do my meditation exercises and there was a lovely spot we could sit up there." Phoebe asked.

"If it's not too far, then sure." Mr Simmons left the two girls to bathe and they giggled as they jogged in the opposite direction up a steep and bare slope. "It's really lovely here isn't it?" Phoebe commented to which Helga just shrugged. "If you like roughing it, then sure."

"And you seemed pretty good at 'roughing it'. I've never recalled you camping much."

"Last summer when I went to my grand-parents' house in Dakota on my dad's side, Big Bob senior took me and my younger cousins into the middle of the forest about three miles and drove off, leaving us to survive on our own and find our way home."

Phoebe looked horrified at the idea but Helga just shrugged again. "It wasn't so bad, we ran from bears a couple of times and had to huddle together to find enough warmth to sleep. And my cousin was poisoned from eating some bad berries and almost died, but you really learning a thing or two about real camping that way."

"I can't agree with your grandfather's methods Helga, but you're alive so I guess that's all that matters." Phoebe sighed and sat down as soon as they reached the top, folding her legs and relaxing her arms while her back stayed rigid. Helga didn't really want to meditate so she lay back against the damp grass and looked up into the pale blue morning sky. The best friends stayed that way for a long time, nothing needing to be said as they did their own thing and were happy just existing together.

When Arnold, Gerald and Eduardo returned from their hike it was almost 8:30am and everyone was awake, some more so than others actually judging by the vacant expressions and droopy eyes. Mr Simmons had several pans on the fire and Harold was drooling while he helped cook their breakfast of fried eggs and leftover fish.

"Wow, this temple is huge!" Gerald exclaimed, looking up at the monumental structure of neatly stacked square boulders with vines growing everywhere. It was further off than the one he'd seen this morning with Arnold and Eduardo and almost three times the size. "Let's see if we can find the entrance guys, come on!" Sid said, leading one group of kids around the left side while Stinky took another group on the right. Helga stayed in place and crossed her arms, just taking in the greatness of what was in front of her. She frowned as she caught a glint high up and climbed halfway up the temple face. "Did I just imagine that? Or was it- THERE!"

The flash of light appeared again, this time she was closer and she clambered further up until she spotted the piece of metal that had been reflecting off the bright sunlight. It was roughly the shape of a ring, silvery but covered in mud and grime. How that tiny amount of reflected surface managed to catch her eye was beyond her... Helga put the ring on and rubbed it against her shirt, grimacing as a long streak of brownish dirt ran down her dress now.

"Helga?" A voice called out. Whirling around said girl saw her best friend back at the bottom of the temple. "What are you doing up there?"

"Nothing really, just thought I saw the entrance…" she joined Phoebe at the bottom and they caught up to Mr Simmons and Eduardo to resume the tour.

After another few miles of hiking they finally stopped for lunch. A lot of the kids were pretty tired at this point, the grumbling of Harold's stomach being louder than the forest itself gave them premise to let everyone stop for their lunch break. Phoebe was busy talking to Gerald so Helga got her sandwich and pink notebook and decided to move somewhere quieter. She found a nice tree to lean against and resumed her reading.

'This is nice. We've got two more days here so I can start looking at the marked location on Arnold's dad's map tomorrow morning. Arnold had it right with getting up earlier than anyone else to probably start looking. Wonder where he is actually…' "HEY!" she screamed as her notebook was snatched from her grasp. She looked up and saw a monkey laughing at her, holding the book. When she tried to climb up the tree he jumped up further and started wiggling his butt in mockery at her. "Give that back now, it's mine!"

"No, pretty thing mine!"

Helga gasped, her head tilting as she stared at the monkey. It's small, tan face and huge black eyes looked at her with a surprisingly more… animated, face than she'd thought it should be. Were all animals this human looking as opposed to how they looked on TV? And was she hallucinating or did the monkey talk to her?

"But I need that!"

"No. Mine!"

The monkey turned on its heel and ran away from her but she dropped to the ground and gave chase below. She passed some of the class and they were staring at her with a puzzled expression. Finally, the monkey decided it was tired of carrying the weight (and it was pretty heavy compared to his small size). He allowed the journal to drop to the ground far below him and took off for wherever monkeys go after they've finished making mischief. The class watched her in amusement but didn't really feel the need to get up and help. It was, after all, the school bully, watching her so desperate over something silly was enjoyable.

Unknown to Helga someone had picked up the journal and it opened up. Barely a glance he made, but the words and writing were immediately familiar.

"Hey, you found my-!" When Helga saw the slight pink book in the hands of the last person she wanted it to be in she stopped running and a look of horror ran across her face.

"Football-head… you found my journal."

"Your journal? Really?"

She gulped as the expression on his face darkened. He looked through the book to confirm what he suspected before crossing the distance between them and grabbing her wrist. She resisted, digging her heels into the ground as he pulled but then he let go and moved his hands to her back and pushed her into the distance. "Gerald, I'm going somewhere private to talk to Helga." He called out to his best friend, whose jaw had dropped as he watched the spectacle of the two blondes. "Y-yeah, sure, whatever buddy!"

'Man, that Arnold is one bold kid…' He thought, not noticing the rustling bushes behind him as he turned to head towards the other students. But before he could reach them a hand suddenly reached around his face and muffled his surprised yelp.

He pushed her and she did little to resist him now, feeling too timid to say anything. When they reached a small clearing surrounded by thick forest she turned away from him but he twirled her back around with a hand to the shoulder and didn't let go in case she tried to run. "Helga, look at me!"

"No." she said, her eyes darting everywhere but at him. He moved closer to her and soon the only thing in front that she could really see was him. Blue clashed with green and they were caught in a battle of wills.

"Why did you steal my father's journal and pretend you destroyed it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"YES YOU DO!" He shoved the book in her face. "The cover has your name on it but the pages don't belong there. I'm asking you why, now tell me!"

Helga shook her head and slipped out of his grasp, backing away. He advanced with each step she took backwards until her back hit the tree and then he slammed both hands on either side of her shoulders. "Tell me now Helga G Pataki. Or so help me this will be the last time I ever decide to acknowledge your existence again!"

She stopped shaking, her fear reaching an ultimate peak as her heart started pounding loudly in her ears. 'Did he just say… he'd pretend I don't exist? How could this boy possibly know my biggest fear in the whole world? How could he…'

"Why would you ask me that, when you already know the answer?"

To be honest he'd just said what him and Gerald discussed doing after they thought she really had destroyed the book. He'd completely ignored her for the last three days, but reports from the other boys said she'd been so distracted by something lately that she'd even become distant and withdrawn from Phoebe (this, according to Gerald). There'd been no need for Stinky, Sid and Harold to step in and defend him because Helga had yet to actually do anything to him. Maybe if he wasn't so busy trying to teach her this so-called 'lesson' he'd know this already.

"What answer Helga? Tell me, even if I already know." He pleaded with her know, his arms dropping but still keeping close. Blue eyes as clear as the waterfall she'd found threatened to pool up with tears but she held them back. All she could focus on was the anger, confusion and sadness in those bright green jellybean forest irises, her favourite eyes in the world. "I said everything that evening on top of the Future tech industries building. All that junk about loving you and stuff… well, when I took it back, I was lying."

And there it was, she'd finally brought her heart out into the open. She stared at him, waiting for his reaction. Carefully gouging out the way his eyes widened and he gasped. "And what does this have to with taking my dad's journal?"

"Well… assuming what I said about my feelings for you to be true. I may have been planning on leaving you here and searching for your parents myself with it…" she admitted, rubbing her arm and looking to the ground in shame. 'Useless plan now with Eduardo here to help him search…' she thought bitterly, turning away for a moment.

"Helga that's… that's…" he was speechless, not sure how to feel about this turn of events. "I'm actually not sure how to feel about that. About everything. I think I'm angry… I think I'm sad… I think I'm, well, relieved… and grateful…"

The last emotion caught her by surprise. 'Grateful, what's he grateful for?' she thought in puzzlement. "I think maybe… when we go home I'd like to…"

His speech was cut short by a piercing scream, one that was so high-pitched it had to come from a young girl, specifically coming from a squeaky voice that Helga knew well. "PHOEBE?!" Helga yelled, pushing past Arnold and rushing towards the screaming with him following close behind. They'd both momentarily forgotten about what they were talking about in favour of more pressing matters.

Phoebe's scream was followed by Sheena's and Rhonda's. It seemed the whole class was in danger so Helga decided to go for a sneakier approach. There were other voices as well, men, not Eduardo or Mr Simmons, and they sounded scary as they shot orders at the kids like "STAY STILL BRAT!"

Helga grabbed Arnold around the shoulders and pushed him down, bringing a hand to his mouth. "They're tryna kidnap our class football-head. Stay quiet and hidden, or else we'll get caught too."

"But Helga we have to help them!" he whispered loudly, having pulled the hand off his face. "We can help them like this, trust me." Her serious expression convinced him to listen and he followed her lead by bear-crawling towards the bushes where the kids could be seen. They parted the leaves slightly and saw the whole class, including Eduardo and Mr Simmons, gagged and bound by the wrists with their ankles chained together in a long line. About fifteen men surrounded the hostages in camouflage uniforms and they all had knives, some had large shotguns.

Gerald looked out towards the direction he'd seen Arnold leave with Helga. They were both there, crouched low; his eyes widened. But Helga stared right at him and put a finger to her mouth to indicate he should be quiet. The guards were mostly turned to face away from the two so they didn't notice this communication.

There was one other man besides the guards. He wore a cream suit and dark brown boots with a cream cowboy hat, his face was tan and Hispanic looking but he spoke like an American as he barked the orders to get the hostages to stand. When he turned they saw he had a pencil-thin moustache that curled at the ends, he just screamed VILLAIN.

"We're taking them back to the village for now!" the man ordered, sneering down at them. "Dumb Americans think they can invade our land without consequences? They will pay a hefty sum to get their people back I'm sure."

"Sir, we've secured the area and no others have been spotted." One of the guards said, his gun at his side as he saluted the man in the suit. His sneer turned to a smirk and he called one of the guards, gesturing to Gerald. The guard pulled his gag out of his mouth and the boy immediately spluttered. "You, black boy, are there any others that we should know about?" he asked, getting right up to Gerald's face with a harsh glare. Gerald merely shook his head, eyeing the others around him to make sure they kept quiet. "It's just us sir, please don't hurt us!"

In reply the leader of the guards simply laughed, grabbing the gag from the guard and shoving it back in his mouth. "We'll take you back to the green-eyes village, our base. Maybe if we're bored I'll untie you and you can play with my men. They'll especially like you girls…" he and the rest of his men were already eyeing the girls who were screaming in terror underneath their gags. "My name is La Sombra, and you Americans are my hostages, so if you do as I say you will return to your home alive… although I cannot guarantee you won't be hurt black boy hah."

Arnold and Helga gasped once again, not just at the disgustingly lewd threats, but also because it turned out they would be facing against THE La Sombra. They both knew who he was from reading Miles' journal, turned out he was even more evil than they'd thought…

"At this rate we'll never find the amulet. We need that prophecy to be fulfilled…" La Sombra stated cryptically to one of his men as they passed the bushes the two kids were hiding behind. "We're heading back now!"

"Here's the plan football-head…" Helga said as they stayed low, watching the guards and their class get ready to start walking. "We're going to follow them because they'll lead us to the village of the green-eyed people. That village is our best chance of finding where your parents are, for now though our focus is rescuing our class and getting them the hell out of here. If we see your parent's, and let's hope that they can be recognized, we'll rescue them too. Any objections to this plan?"

"Well you covered the main points, but the how is still a little unclear." Arnold muttered behind her as they started moving with the distant group of people. "Let's just hope we can figure things out by then…"

Part 5

The pair had been tracking them for almost 24 hours now, growing wearier by every passing minute, with no food since they'd left their packs by the class and very little time to stop for water or a break. The dark grey sky was threatened to unleash upon them a monsoon at any moment. But following the group and staying within earshot of their voices Helga and Arnold gleaned some information. These guys were mercenaries, hired to help La Sombra find the amulet and eliminate any threats in his way.

"How much longer do you think we can hold out?" Arnold whispered, his breathing shallow and erratic as he clutched the side of his aching ribcage. He'd taken a few tumbles earlier and it left bruises down the side of his torso which could be seen beneath the ripped plaid jacket and white undershirt he wore. "They must be getting close to the village now, but look, they're stopping again." Helga sighed in relief and leaned against the tree she hid behind as she slid down the trunk. Her knees were skinned and her skin felt putrid under the mud they'd camouflaged themselves in. Her camouflage jacket had a lot of holes in it too but the pink sweater-dress was still intact, if not a little dirty. She pulled out the water-bottle she'd had on her and offered it to him, which he took careful sips of gratefully. Meanwhile she tugged her boots off and emptied them of dirt and stray rocks before massaging her feet. Sore from the endless walking, Arnold stuffed his second pair of socks into the boots first to act as an extra cushion. Helga took a more radical approach; she'd noticed how hard her feet were from the callouses now and threw the boots away altogether, instead wrapping the softest parts in gauze such that her toes and ankles still made direct contact with the ground. She wrapped her hands in a similar fashion, smothering the blisters from bear-crawling too much and wincing when one of them popped and oozed clear liquid down her arm. Arnold also grimaced, wishing he could do more than hand her the healing ointment Eduardo gave him earlier that would probably work if they weren't pushing themselves so much.

They hadn't spoken much at all, preferring to stay quiet in case the kidnappers said something important and fearing they might be heard by the guards. Helga communicated with her eyes and action, gesturing him often to stay down lower or go somewhere when he was needed. Arnold happily obliged, for she had yet to ever steer them wrong when it came to her instincts on this trip.

And it seemed all their hard work paid off. The group of captives and capturers met a wide clearing after travelling to the top of Mt Javena. While the land was bare save for a few boulders, La Sombra found one of the old carvings, an insignificant piece of stone with the sun carved into it. He splayed his hand out onto the carving and turned it like a knob, and with a rumble a boulder rolled out of the way to reveal a secret entrance.

"That must be where the green-eyes have been hiding. Dad wrote about this in his journal!" Arnold whispered loudly, astonishment written all over his face. They wait for everyone to enter before stepping out from behind the trees and approaching the boulder themselves. "Do you think we should go in now or later?" Helga asked, touching the stone with the sun-carving.

"Let's go now. They won't be expecting anyone so they're probably not watching wherever this exits out to…"

Helga shrugged and turned the carving just as La Sombra had. When they stepped through what they found was a long cave, dark but with torches lining what they had to assume was the path to follow while the path was laced through a bunch of other dark caves. It felt like they were travelling inside a giant ant farm as they took sharp twists and turns with each flickering source of light. The end of a long tunnel loomed near and natural light could be seen, Arnold travelled a considerable distance ahead of her and she struggled to keep up, jagged rocks piercing her feet. Turns out ditching the boots had been a really bad idea…

"Arnold wai- shit!" she ducked to the side just in time. A net was thrown down from the cave's exit and the rowdy crows of the soldiers sounded. They picked him up and took him out of sight.

Helga gulped as some of the guards started running towards her hiding spot. Looks like she was doomed if she didn't do something soon.

"One day a baby would be born to calm the forces of nature. This boy would be the prophetic finder of the elusive jewel of San Lorenzo, placed in an amulet by the green-eyed tribe who swore to protect their precious jewel."

La Sombra had addressed him cruelly as a weird-shaped head boy, just like her mother who was currently lying next to her husband tied up against a tall post in the middle of the village made up of grass and mud huts. Now he was telling him some mumbo-jumbo about a so-called prophecy he was meant to carry out.

Yet all Arnold could do was stare at the two figures across from him. Pale skin covered in dirt and emaciated limbs peeking out of raggedy clothing, but the hair colours and the woman's uniquely oblong head-shape made the idea that these other hostages were most likely Miles and Stella Shortman. They were alive, barely, their breathing laboured and cheeks hollow, trapped for almost ten years now La Sombra had boasted.

"You are the prophecy-carrier boy; I just know it!" La Sombra exclaimed, looking through the pink journal he'd taken from his bag after it was searched by the guards. "Even if I am, what make you think I'd find the amulet and give it to you when I really have no idea where it is?" Arnold asked, with an equal mixture of fear, disgust and anger, still staring at his parents while he replied to his capturer.

He was immediately punched in the face and suffered another kick to the stomach. "For your insolent words boy." La Sombra snarls as he signals two men to stand on either side of him. "Now, it seems you took a lot longer to get here and show us how to get the amulet than expected. I'm going to need some retribution for the waiting period. But don't worry about dying, we need you alive after all heh." This was said before the guards proceeded to beat the crap out of him, stomping on every part of his body below his neck. He felt like one of his ribs snapped and his right arm felt swollen, like it was also broken. Then they lifted him up and holding each arm he was dragged away. "We're going to the temple now to find the amulet boy…"

Part 6

Helga had to think quickly with the mercenaries right behind her. She darted to the right and spotted a pebble that she immediately picked up and threw back towards the entrance. It let out a loud clang which made the soldiers turn around and run off to investigate it.

'Gotta find another way out, maybe this will lead back out…' she thought as she spotted a dark hole leading who knows where. There was water in this cave, noticing too late she made a loud splashing noise as she fell into a rock-pool up to her knees.

"You heard that right?" one of the soldiers asked his friend, who nodded and turned around. They followed the splashing noise to one of the unlit paths. "You'd better give yourself up now or suffer the consequences if we have to catch you!"

"Fat chance losers, if you want me come and get me!" the voice of a young girl yelled out through the darkness. Growling, the two soldiers chased after her blindly. She could still see their outlines against the dim light and backed up even further. This cave forked off into two other paths, she chose the left one. 'Hope I'm doing something right, I feel like there's someone else here, or maybe…" she gulped, "something else…"

A low growl made her jump and twirl around in freight. "Wh-who's there?"

"You shouldn't be here girl…" a voice said in her head, one that was distinctly female.

Bright yellow eyes pierced through the darkness, mesmerising her. "I didn't want to be! I'm being chased by men and I tried to escape."

The eyes stilled, dark pupils seeming to roam over her body as if measuring her up. "Men? The ones who led you here earlier?" Helga nodded and the growling recommenced. "I'll lead you back to the forest."

She stumbled around but moved quickly, keeping her ears peeled as she followed the sound of the jungle cat. "Y-you're a wildcat of some kind. This may be weird, but I've been able to talk to and understand you and other animals for a while now." She admitted, smiling in relief when the next turn they took opened up to a burrowed out hole in the dirt. She could see the back of the jungle cat she'd followed now, black spots trailing down it's spine and across her stomach over tawny fur of a thousand different shades of yellow and brown. "Your people call us jaguar. We have been waiting for you…" was all the jaguar replied with, stepping aside to allow her out of the hole. She froze near the opening as her eyes darted around, catching sight of not just one, but at least ten other jaguars. "This human child can understand us?" one of them asked, a male. The one who'd led her out nodded. "There were men after her. Go see to them won't you?"

The male jaguar nodded and he and the other's left. Leaving only the female one who'd helped her get back here. "Why are you helping me? Not that I'm not thankful or anything…" Helga asked, leaning back against a tree and catching her breath. "Because you can understand us, much like our goddess who left this world many seasons ago." The jaguar replied, sitting down with her tail curled around her feet. Her eyes were warm and more of an amber colour under the bright light of the forest, black pupils like thin slits darting around their area, searching for signs of other life. "We animals instinctively recognise our kin, unlike you humans."

Helga could hear the faint sounds of screaming and her face paled as she leaned her ear towards the hole. "Is that the soldiers?"

"Yes. They have been hunting our kind since they arrived, and now we are lucky enough to be given the opportunity to pick some of their men off."

She couldn't admit to feeling guilty about their deaths, but hearing their suffering still made her shiver a little. "So I guess you'll help me then? I need to go back there and look for my friend whose been held captive by the leader of those soldiers."

The jaguar nodded, "we should be able to track them quickly enough. Again, just follow me…"

The rough kick to his back made Arnold cry out in pain, forcing him to speed up his pace a little. He was being dragged god knows where and it was almost pitch black. The soldiers had torches at the end of their rifles, lighting the way mostly for La Sombra who stood in the centre of his roaming pack of mercenaries, one of them being the navigator who pointed which direction they should be heading.

"We're heading to the temple boy, where you'll be able to open the door for us." Was all he gave as an explanation for why they were heading into the forest at this hour. "And make haste, we need to be there by midnight." These words followed by yet another bite of steel-toed boot made him moan, wishing nothing more than for it to end already.

"So this is where the green-eyes village is? It's amazing!"

Helga couldn't believe her eyes. The ingenious design of the village hidden underground was breath-taking. The catacombs all led down to one huge opening, where a plot of land sat, surrounded by a trench made up of fresh spring water. It was almost like Atlantis, the picturesque huts surrounding a huge totem pole near the very centre of the plot. The ceiling was hundreds of metres above with a few small openings that allowed either sunlight or waterfalls to spill out across the spring. She crouched low behind another boulder with Jaguar at her side, spying on the guards as they made their taunts to her classmates and teachers.

"I have to get to them somehow, Jaguar, would you be able to distract them?" Helga asked, to which the wildcat nodded. She took off around to the other side of the trench while Helga swum over.

"Finally get some alone time with this cutie ehehe…" one of the guards threatened, moving to a squealing Rhonda and grabbing her thin wrists as she tried to cry but was still muffled by the gag and blindfold. One moment he was enjoying himself, the next he and the other men froze in shock as a threatening growl roared out and was heard by everyone. Most of them left to see what the noise was and Helga took the opportunity to leap onto the nearest captive, who happened to be Gerald. She peeled off his blindfold and gave him time to focus, before untying his hands and feet.

"Helga, where's Arnold?" he asked, after a quick albeit awkward hug was shared between the bully and one of her former victims. "He's been captured and taken by La Sombra, we need to get as many people here and get them out to rescue him." They both moved on to what looked like Curly and released his bindings. But as soon as his legs were untied he jumped up and loosened his own arms from the ropes. He took off without a word into the darkness and they couldn't berate him out loud for fear of getting caught. Eduardo was next, but as soon as his ankle bindings were loosened one of the guards spotted them and grabbed everybody's attention.

"HEY! THEY'RE ESCAPING!" he roared, running towards them with his gun raised. Helga pulled both guys up and sprinted towards the edge of the rock, leaping into the water and swimming as fast as she could away with Gerald and Eduardo behind her. "Jaguar! Help me!" Helga called out in the vain hope that her animal friend could hear.

The cat darted between the soldiers and distracted them, allowing the kids and Eduardo to escape. Panting on the other side of the rock, Helga stood up straight again and tugged their arms towards one of the openings, back into the cave system. "Come on, we've gotta get out of here…"

"2 minutes to midnight boy, stand here."

Arnold was led by La Sombra, his hands still tied, to a slab of yellow rock in the ground with yet another carving of the sun embedded in it. The moon shone down on him like a spotlight and everything glowed ethereally.

"…3…2…1…" La Sombra's eyes darted between Arnold and the temple doors, holding his breath in anticipation. When his watch struck midnight the rock beneath the boy lit up, turning a bright gold with a golden trail lining the doorway before the doors opened themselves. "YES! I can almost see the amulet from here!" He yelled, grabbing the boy's back and ordering the soldiers to go in before him. 'There could be traps that I wouldn't want to fall for in here…' he thought deviously, 'better let these men take care of them for me.'

He watched as soldiers fell into trapdoors with spikes at the bottom or were rained upon with falling arrows. A gaping pit of fire opened up and swallowed three of his men while another one was knocked into the wall and squashed by a boulder, almost like a bug. The whole way he led Arnold, holding him like a meat-shield with an evil grin on his face. They were heading right down the middle of the tunnel where a glinting light could be seen.

"And here we are, the final test…" he stated, marvelling at the beautiful gold pendant embedded with emeralds with a thin gold chain. "Pick it up boy."

He untied Arnold and prodded him towards the amulet. Said boy gulped, taking his time to check for any pressure plates or hidden buttons before he gently cradled the pendant and lifted it upwards. "Is that… is that it?" he asked, addressing the room as if to ask for permission. The silence was its own reply, and he deemed this to mean he was allowed to take it.

"Why do you want this thing so bad anyways?" Arnold asked, stepping down from the pedestal but wearily keeping away from La Sombra. "Because it grants the power to control minds, among other things, now give it here boy!"

La Sombra had said those words just as he reached up to snatch it from him. But as soon as it left Arnold's grasp the room around them quivered, almost like it was angry. Man and boy stood there, frozen in shock, as stalactites speared the ground and the earth beneath them began to shake violently. The moment he'd taken the amulet it seemed La Sombra had started an earthquake, for not being the true wielder of the necklace.

Arnold screamed as stalactites fell right at his feet, jumping back and knocking La Sombra and the necklace out of his grasp. He ran for it, beating the man to it and looping it around his neck before racing up the pedestal to avoid the chunks of now collapsing ceiling. 'Oh God, how am I going to get myself out of this mess?' Arnold worried internally, looking around for any possible exit while La Sombra sought to get past the barrier created between them by falling rock. Just when he thought that all hope was lost though, the very top of the temple opened up to reveal the pale moonlight outside.

"ARNOLD?!" a familiar voice yelled out, before the blonde pigtailed head was stuck through the hole revealing none other than Hela G Pataki. "HELGA!" he screamed back, never more relieved to see his bully in his whole entire life. "Watcha doing down there football-head, need some help?" she yelled out with a lopsided grin. "Lower me down boys!"

Immediately she descended to the floor, sitting on a rope tied around her upper thighs like a harness. She reached the floor and loosened the rope enough so that he could sit in as well. "Hold on Arnoldo, we're going topside!"

She gave a good tug and they were zooming back up again, just in the nick of time since the earthquake crumbled the pedestal they'd just been standing on into a fine dust. They were in the clear, Arnold reached the top first and helped haul his and Helga's weight back out of the hole, before sprawling out onto the ground and looking at the smiling faces of Gerald and Eduardo. "Thank you guys so much for saving me!" he cried, pulling the two males into his arms. Eduardo patted his shoulder in relief. "It's good that you are alive Arnold. But you should thank Helga more than us, she was the one who rescued us so we wouldn't be here without her."

"I hate to admit it, but yeah, THE Helga G Patki is the one who dodged all those mercs, rescued us, somehow managed to find and came up with the plan to rescue you." Gerald added after he stopped hugging his best bro. At those words Arnold turned towards Helga with a soft smile. "Really? Helga, you went through so much just to rescue me?"

"Pfffft… of course, football-head. I-I mean, who wouldn't?" she replied, crossing her arms in a show of unnecessary defiance. She didn't expect to be tackled by Arnold though and they fell to the ground in a heap of tangled limbs and bodies. 'Oh my god he forcefully hugged me! This is what heaven feels like…' she thought blissfully, her smile turning as goofy as his for a moment before she shook her head and shoved him off. "Cut it out football-head, I don't need that mushy crap right now!" Even as she said that she was tugging him back onto his feet and he grinned at her. "Whatever you say Helga…"

"They brought us to the village hidden underground and tied us up, I recognised the other two hostages as your parents just before they blindfolded us though…"

Arnold gulped loudly and nodded, taking in all the information he'd just been told as they sat around the campfire back at their original base. All the other tents had been taken down and packed in a neat pile, ready to go when they managed to rescue the others still held captive. Eduardo had reached some obscure radio signal and sent out an SOS to the San Lorenzo government. The problem was they wouldn't be able to get here for another 12 hours and by then their friends might be killed. All four of them agreed that a rescue plan would need to be put into action by tomorrow morning, it was probably the last chance they were going to get since the jungle was too dark to navigate through and they were on high alert.

They were tearing through a large chunk of their food rations to make up for the lost calories they hadn't been fed during the kidnapping. Tearing open her second granola bar, Helga chewed on it while answering the question posed by Arnold of how she knew where he was.

"My friend Jaguar was tracking you and La Sombra and she led me to the temple. Oh, Jaguar is an actual jaguar. I'm able to talk to animals, weird huh?"

The boys stared at her, as if asking for proof, and she just shrugged and called out to Jaguar who made her way towards the girl from behind the bushes. None of the boys seemed too frightened considering how compliant the jungle cat was being, but it was indeed peculiar when it let out a loud growl followed by several hisses and Helga replied to it with a series of her own growls and squeaks. They were conversing, their noises going back and forth before they nodded at each-other and Jaguar left.

"What did it say?" Gerald asked, staring at the cat's swishing tail as it left through the bushes. "She said that her friends said that everyone else is still alive and the two other adults, Arnold's parents are awake now. Apparently, they caught some mysterious sleeping sickness but they awoke very recently, but the green-eyed people haven't moved yet. Do you think it has something to do with you getting the amulet?" she directed this question towards Arnold who merely shrugged. "Probably. I'm still curious about your ability to talk to animals though. Do you remember doing anything specific that may have brought on this power?"

"Well… the only thing different now is…" she gasped and brought her hand up to her face. "It has to be this ring! I found it on the ground outside that temple and put it on and since then I've been talking to them!"

"So you found a magical ring huh? You are one lucky kid Pataki…" Gerald said after giving out a low whistle. "I have an idea!" he added, "why not send a message through the animals to the class? Tell them that tomorrow we're gonna rescue them so they'll be ready to go?"

"That's a great idea tall-hair boy…" Helga admitted, immediately grabbing some paper she had in her backpack and pulling out a pen. "Even better, I'll add the pocket-knife Phoebe brought with her and hopefully she'll get the note with it and cut everyone loose discreetly. Then they can leave immediately."

The boys watched as she hastily scribbled down all the details to her best friend and rolled the paper up around the pocket knife. She called out into the dark wilderness and what looked like a mongoose appeared. It took the note from her as she explained what she wanted it to do.

"We should probably get to sleep now so we have enough strength to fight. Lord knows we'll need it…" Eduardo said, bidding everyone goodnight as he slipped into his sleeping bag and turned over. The kids had dragged their sleeping bags out as well so they could be closer together, each of them were lying on top of their flat beds and staring up into the stars. No words really needed to be said, instead silence overtook the campers and they drifted off to sleep.

Well, that was the case for two of them. Arnold heard the restless tossing and turning to his right and knew it was Helga not able to sleep. Through hooded eyes he watched as she sat up and looked around. Growling, she grabbed the sheathe holding a small knife that she'd taken off and got up to walk away from the group. He resolved to follow her, taking a guess she was probably heading for the waterfall.

As he stepped into view of the crystal-clear pool he spotted the water cascading onto the very still form of the girl he'd known almost his whole life. "Helga, what are you doing?" he asked, reaching out to grab her soaked shoulder. Helga flinched at his touch but simply shrugged. "I felt gross and couldn't sleep. Just sitting here getting clean. I was gonna sharpen my knife too, have it ready for the fight tomorrow."

"Oh…" he didn't know what else to say, but refused to leave and sat down next to her. "Do you mind if I join you? Now that you mention it I feel like I haven't showered in a long while, which is a fact."

She giggled a little and moved over as he took off his shoes, socks, plaid shirt and cargo pants to sit under the waterfall in his shirt and boxers. It was surprisingly warm, but refreshing to the senses as he let it wash over his head and take away the grime and mud from his skin. He watched Helga the whole time as she picked up a smooth stone and ran it along her knife to hone the blade's edge. "Helga, do you mind if we talk about that fight we had when I took you away from the group and into the forest?"

Her jaw clenched but she continued to sharpen her knife. "Go on…"

He took a few moments to gather his thoughts, hand in his chin. "You said that you lied when you took back what you said on the FTi building. That means you love me, have loved me since you were four, and all that bullying and name-calling was just your way of getting my attention…"

She simply nodded, her eyes looking up into the beautiful night sky, away from her now razor-sharp knife as it was tucked back into its sheathe. He secretly thought that at this moment, with her blue eyes like sparkling diamonds and her wavy blonde hair loose from its usual pigtails, she was even prettier than the stars and the moon above. "Don't you want an answer from me?"

Helga sighed and shook her head. "Not really, no. All I wanted was to get the burden of loving you off of my chest that day. And as soon as I confessed the pressure stopped, I stopped suffocating underneath such a massive weight. I felt really good when I told you I loved you Arnold, so whatever happens now just… well, happens."

She shrugged nonchalantly again, standing up on her bare feet and looking around for her boots. 'She doesn't care about how much I care for her now?' Arnold felt like his heart was sinking. "But Helga, I wanted to tell you that I…"

"ARNOLD MAN, WHERE ARE YOU?!" the voice of Gerald called out through the darkness and both kids jumped in fright. "ARNOLD! HELGA!"

"WE'RE HERE GERALDO, STOP YELLING CRIMINY!" this coming from a screaming Helga who rubbed her wet face tiredly and bent over to wring her hair out with her towel. "Looks like you'll have to reschedule what you were gonna say for another time football-head, sorry." And without another word she stalked off towards camp, passing a bewildered Gerald and shaking her head as she glanced back at the wistful-looking Arnold.

Part 7

The morning jungle setting was as dramatic as anyone would have wished, a storm seemed to brewing based on the black clouds hanging low over their heads, wind picking up and whipping back hair and making the trees and vines sway dangerously. The beginnings of the aforementioned monsoon with fat droplets of rain came down at the top of the steep slope where two young girls had journeyed once. And it was here where two distinct parties stood about thirty metres away from each-other. The largest group was La Sombra, with his three remaining men and the class still held captive, as well as Arnold's parents and the chief of the green-eyed village. The smaller group held only four people, and I don't need to remind you of their names do I?

"Time to hand over the amulet boy, just give up now!" La Sombra shouted, his voice carrying downwind and reaching their ears. Arnold stepped forward, wearily watching the guards who raised their rifles at him and clearing his throat. "La Sombra, you've lost almost all of your men and tortured my friends. I'm sorry, but I can't let you win."

They'd discussed it the night before and came to the conclusion that should he get the amulet, La Sombra would kill them all without a second thought. One, because no-one would serve a purpose anymore to him, and two, the ransom idea was all a bunch of hooey considering he was filthy rich. So Arnold stepped back with an apologetic look on his face, and before the soldiers could fire their weapons the earth rumbled once again, only it was for a very different reason this time.

Everyone screamed and ran as the stampede of hundreds of animals tore through the treeline. Tigers, jaguars, elephants and hippos, giraffes and leopards with dozens of monkeys and colourful birds of all colours and sizes noisily made their way towards La Sombra while avoiding the smaller group of humans. Chaos had ensued completely, on top of the leading elephant a small figure with jet black hair and round specs could be seen.

"FREEE THE ANIMALS HAHAHAHA!" Curly yelled as he whooped with joy and directed the stampede. The captive class was stunned by the scene for but a moment, before they dropped their ropes that Phoebe had loosened the night before and ran for the forest line and tall trees that could be climbed.

The four of them ran towards their friends while the remaining soldiers seemed to have high-tailed it. This job turned out to be more than they'd bargained for apparently. Arnold rushed to his parent's side and they blinked at him in wonder, before he hooked their arms over his neck and led them to safety. "It's okay Mom, Dad, I've come to rescue you guys…"

"A-Arnold?" Stella stuttered, tugging at the cheek of the boy who held her. "Is th-that really you my son?"

"Yeah mom, it's me."

"Arnold, you came!" Miles hugged his son while tears streamed down Stella's face before she too joined in on the hug. Their little family reunion was cheered on by the everyone and tears were running down most of the girl's and Mr Simmons' eyes. "We thought we'd never see you again, thank goodness!" Stella cried, hugging the boy closer. They were so distracted by their reunion that they didn't notice the villain wrap his filthy hand around a young girl who'd let her guard down for once until it was too late. She bit his hand and clawed it off of her mouth for a second, just long enough to let out an ear-piercing shriek before she felt a blow to the back of her head and her vision started fading.

The shriek however bought everybody's attention to her, Arnold immediately recognised it was Helga in trouble and dropped to the ground, looking wildly around. "HELGA!"

And there at the edge of the cliff stood La Sombra, his arm wrapped around the neck of his girl with a knife point at her throat. "I'll repeat what I said earlier, time to hand over the amulet!"

Helga yelled at him not to, but he didn't listen. He threw the necklace at La Sombra, hoping it would fall off the edge and he'd leap down to retrieve it, but no such luck. The man caught it perfectly and stopped the knife digging into her neck, before laughing. "Thanks a lot, but I owe you a lot for almost thwarting my plans sooo…" he pulled Helga's collar back and watched her stumble backwards before falling backwards off the cliff, "here's that retribution."

He dived off the side himself and immediately pulled the parachute he'd been wearing this whole time (just in case you know…). Little did anyone remember that the animals were part of this pitiful fight, pitiful like La Sombra and his men ran screaming as soon as they saw exactly how outnumbered and outclassed they were, and while his parachute was set to get him safely across the river far below an eagle flying just over him thought now that just wouldn't do. Expertly dropping one claw down, the eagle skimmed over the chute and cut a line perfectly down the middle of the chute sending La Sombra plummeting to his doom. Did I mention the crocodiles at the bottom of the river? No? Well, they ate his splattered remains and enjoyed it too.

"Oh god Helga please don't be dead! Please…" Arnold scrambled to the edge of the cliff and dropped to his stomach before shimmying to look over. His heart beat wildly in his chest when he though all hope was lost, but then he spotted something that almost made him laugh in relief. There, just where the slope of the cliff dropped off to a concave looking pit, was a stick-thin arm struggling to stay over the edge with a pink ribbon in the hand that clawed at dirt.

"Hold onto my feet and lower me down!" Arnold ordered, which Eduardo was happy to oblige as kept a steady hold on Arnold's ankles and was helped by Gerald and Harold. Arnold crawled down the steep slope and clamped onto the hand tightly, vowing to never let go. "Hang on Helga, we're pulling you up!"

"Righto football-head, I'll just hang…" the reply was weak in comparison to her usual zingers, for good reason though as she stared at the never-ending drop she hung over. She was dragged upwards inch by inch until the crocodiles were no longer visible, and then all she could see were the bright green of Arnold's eyes as he tangled his arms around hers and they were facing each-other while being pulled up. She got up on her knees and ran up the slope of the steep cliff before tumbling onto the safety of flat land and collapsing there. Cheers rang out once again and her body was lifted up by Arnold who was hugging her again, with Phoebe and even Gerald joining in. Mr Simmons was the second to express his relief at her being okay and lastly three people gathered behind him, those being Arnold's parents and the chief of the green-eyed people.

Part 8

Everyone was celebrating. Not only had the class gotten out all alive against the most harrow of circumstances, but they'd found Arnold's parents, been taken on the adventure of lifetime and discovered an ancient civilisation of people long-thought to be lost to the world. A group of villagers scaled the cliff-side and picked the amulet from the distant ground, left untouched by the knowing crocs who simply gazed at them.

As Arnold put the amulet back on and stood in the centre of the village they'd had to go back to, a beam of light shone down upon him. Then, the light travelled throughout the entire village and it felt like life was being breathed back into it. The class and adults looked around curiously at the glowing village, noticing what seemed to be signs of life within the dwellings. And indeed it was, doors and windows were opened, tan faces with bright green eyes peeking out and looking at them with wonder.

The village of the green-eyed people were fully awake and ready to live again, having recovered from the sleeping sickness.

Arnold was honoured as a sort of god of the village, while Helga was considered the reincarnation of "La Javena Diablo", the devil of Mt Javena. These titles were explained over the bonfire that night as the class and adults were tended to by the villagers, fed and watered to the point where they didn't look so emaciated and weak as before.

"It's been a good time brother, what a story we'll be able to tell!" Gerald exclaimed as he sipped his coconut juice and slung an arm around his best-friend's shoulder. "Yeah, this ending has been really nice but I really miss Hillwood." Arnold admitted, thinking about his grandpa who was probably extremely worried and ready to come here to find him. "I miss Hillwood and my family a lot as well! Can you believe it?"

The boys laughed and clapped their hands to the merry dancing of some of the villagers, amongst them was Eugene and Curly, who'd been stripped of their shirts and painted with bright red and yellow clay.

Arnold moves around the circle to sit by his parents who were nuzzled close to each-other and seemed to be lost in their own world, that was until they spotted him. Miles gestures for him to sit between them and he took the opportunity, his small frame rested against his dad while his head leaned on his mother's shoulder.

"It's been a tough few days for you, huh son?" Stella comments, running a hand through her son's blonde spikes that were the exact colour of his dad's hair. "It was all worth it mom, to find you guys. Your journal helped a bit dad, although we didn't really need it in the end thanks to La Sombra leading us to where you all were."

"He was pretty terrible; I'll admit I didn't shed a tear at his demise." Miles admitted grimly, his hand on his son's shoulder. "I'm glad I left the journal behind son so you could come, instead of bringing it with me."

They talked about random topics, like how his parents had caught the sickness and fallen asleep as well, what he'd been up to for the past eight years and what life was like at home. He tried to let them know as gently as possible about Gertie's passing, but at Miles persistence he just blurted it out. Miles had to leave to compose himself as he immediately broke down, cursing himself for not getting back to see his mother one last time with Stella leaving as well to comfort him. Arnold didn't want to intrude on their intimate moment and instead went looking for the only other person he really wanted to see, Helga.

He found her in one of the huts, lying on a floor-mat with Phoebe cradling her head as she brushed the last of the tangles from the girl's hair. Phoebe looked up at him in surprise, before she smiled softly with an odd twinkle in her eye. She gently lifted her best-friends head off of her and stood up, taking care to not step on her as she made her way to the doorway where he stood.

"These mats have all been set up for us Arnold, we're all sleeping in here tonight. It won't look suspicious if you lie on one of the mats you know, so would you mind watching her for me? I want to find Gerald…" she winked and took off before he could even stutter out a reply.

"Calm down Arnold, you're tired now and you want to sleep. Why not take this mat here? Two down from Helga so we're obviously not doing anything, but I can watch her sleep as non-creepily as possible… there's no non-creepy way to watch someone sleep…"

Her golden hair tumbled down her shoulders in waves, around a face with not as much colour as he wished it would have. Heavy bangs hid most of the strong brows she had (two of them, she'd started plucking at the beginning of the year) and dark eyelashes quivered with the REM cycle of sleep she was going through. He reached out to her, his finger curling around one of her locks and pulling It down, playing with the soft tresses. Then his hand moved to hers, harder but smaller than his, and their fingers intertwined nicely. He drifted off to sleep like this, not noticing the warm body of his mother behind him as faced Helga, not noticing the light from their single torch dimming to nothing as the entire class shuffled into the room and muffled voices whispered and giggled all over the place.

What he did notice though, the next morning, was the absence of his golden-haired angel. Rubbing his eyes tiredly, he looked around the room and discovered the sleeping bodies of all of his friends and family. His parents were to his right, Phoebe and Gerald to his far left and Mr Simmons, Eduardo and the rest of the class were on various mats around the large hut. Everyone was still in a deep slumber considering it wasn't even 6am yet, but Arnold couldn't sleep not knowing where she was so he tucked his feet into his boots without socks and creeped out of the hut to find Helga.

Some of the villagers were awake at this time and offered friendly waves and even hugs. He couldn't really communicate, using only his 4th grade broken Spanish dialect to say words like "Gracias" for thank you and "De nada" for "you're welcome". The chief was awake, luckily, for he was the only one who spoke English in the whole village and he asked her if he'd seen Helga this morning.

"Aaah yes! She went to the surface again, talking to her jaguar friend about a waterfall."

"Okay thank you, that's all I wanted to know."

He followed the torches up through the catacombs and found the exit, then he followed the path of worn-down grass that led to the temple. It was a decent walk which gave him a chance to stretch his limbs before he finally made it to the waterfall, Helga's favourite spot it seemed.

She was swimming across the bottom of the pond like a fish, emerging to the surface with a great big gasp of air and lying on her back to stare at the sky serenely.

"It would be nice if we could keep moments like these forever, don't you think Arnold?"

She didn't seem surprised by his presence, merely glancing to the side as if to confirm he was the one standing there gaping like a fish before she crawled to the edge of the rock he stood on and grabbed the ledge. "What's the matter, cat got your tongue?"

"N-no. I was just… surprised…"

She wrung her hair out once again before sauntering over to him. "Surprised at what?"

"At how beautiful you look, seriously Helga, if you smiled like that all the time nobody would ever pick on you."

She laughed at that, not her usual devilish cackle, this time it was soft and carefree and sounded like honey. "Yeah right football-head, just in case you're unsure what happened here isn't gonna change much. We'll go back to Hillwood and I'll go back to being the bully picking on everyone else before they pick on me."

Arnold frowned deeply, twirling her around as she went to turn away. "Why can't things change Helga? Maybe I want them to change, specifically between you and me."

"That's a terrible idea Arnoldo, can it now."

Her eyes were melancholy pools of blue, asking him to get lost even though he just couldn't. He leaned forward before grabbing her cheeks and pulled their faces together. 'This is for that time on the FTi building…' he thought, smashing his lips against hers before leaning back and pecking at her cheek. 'And that's for saving my life when the temple was coming down, and almost dying at the cliff, and that brilliant idea of following La Sombra to the village, and showing me the essay competition, and for all the other things only a guardian angel could do…' He pulled her shoulders closer and backed her up against a tree, almost growling at the lack of reciprocation from the stunned girl as their lips locked again. His eyes watched hers, searing gaze threatening to burn the forest with the heat between them. And eventually, her eyes fluttered closed and she moved her mouth as well, enjoying what she could as he hugged her close and kissed her for dear life, drawing back only for a few moments to breathe before diving in again.

"ARNOLD! HELGA!" the familiar voice of Gerald had Arnold growling again for a completely different reason. He stood back from her, breathing heavily, as she clutched the bark behind her and tried to stay on her feet. The rustling of bushes grew louder before their friend stepped out and crossed his arms at the suspicious looking pair. "We're getting ready to go, as in leave San Lorenzo! Hey Pataki, you feeling okay?"

She didn't respond, her earlier expression of peacefulness eradicated and replaced with that of panic. She didn't reply to him and dashed off, probably back to the village. She didn't feel the pair of eyes on the back of her head nor the wistful sigh from behind as Arnold also crossed his arms and shook his head in worry. "Don't even ask Gerald."

They said goodbye to everyone they came across that they were leaving behind, whether it be villager, animal or tree and plant alike. The plane was a little more crowded with two extra passengers but no-one complained. Arnold couldn't stop staring at Helga, who immediately went to Phoebe and collapsed on the smaller Asian girl. She slept the whole flight away, then when the plane landed and they found their luggage she didn't say a word of goodbye before jumping into the mini-coop Olga was driving. Arnold was saddened by the fact, but reminded himself that there was school on Monday and he'll see here then, there was a whole weekend with his parents to think about right now.

"It's been really nice spending all this time with you guys." Arnold told them on Monday morning over his mother's delicious cooked breakfast of bacon and pancakes. "Same to you buddy, but we've gotta start looking for work now, I applied at the community college as a teacher and your mother's already set to go to Hillwood hospital as a GP."

"Aww and you're gonna leave me home alone once more? Schucks…" Phil batted his eyes in an attempt at a puppy-dog look but, failing, shrugged instead. "Don't worry dad, my job would take up 3 hours at most of having to be at the college, just to teach the classes. And it's a 5-minute drive from here."

He kissed his mom and hugged his dad goodbye before hopping on the school-bus and sitting next to Gerald. There they talked about their usual things, baseball, movies and video games, with the occasional memory of the adventure in San Lorenzo, before Phoebe and Helga got onto the bus.

Gerald moved one seat behind him and Phoebe beamed as she sat next to him. The two struck up an easy conversation (but who knows what they talked about when they barely had anything in common) leaving Helga to stare at Arnold and the only other spare seat on the bus. She sat down next to him, wishing she at least had the window-seat to distract from their proximity. Arnold was having none of that however and stared at her with determination and an unusually heavy-lidded smile.

"Morning Helga."

"Yeah, morning football head." She crossed her arms and slouched in her chair, staring at the back of the seat in front of her. "How was your weekend?"

"Not so bad. Yourself? Things looking up even more-so with the parents at home?"

She glanced at him in her peripheral vision and the widening grin almost made her want to sock him, she didn't really like goofy looks for no reason after all. "They are, thanks for asking Helga."

"Yeah, don't mention it again football-head."

"So I was wondering if you were free tonight?"

She raised an eyebrow at this questioning, noticing the blush that spread from his nose to his cheeks. "Monday night? I'll probably have homework to do and stuff."

"Well, maybe if we get homework you could come to the boarding house and do it… with me."

His gaze was nervous but pleading, smile shaky as she stared at him in disbelief. "Are you asking me… on a study date?"

"Yes."

She was floored. Her whole body froze at the prospect of a date, even one so casual as them studying together. With Arnold, her beloved football-head who must be completely out of his mind right now…

"I guess… sure, why not." She smiled weakly, trying not to look as queasy as she felt. "Cool, you can come over tonight and have dinner with us as well. And maybe watch a movie to… you know, reward ourselves for studying on a Monday."

"Yeah…"

"And maybe another night we can go to Chez Paris and have a fancy dinner with just the two of us…"

"Uuuhhh…"

"And we can go to the movies on Friday and watch the Evil Dead 6 theatre premiere..."

"I thought WE were going?" Gerald butted in, questioning his best friend who glared back at him. "You're bringing Phoebe remember?"

"He is?" Phoebe asked in surprise, causing the dark-skinned boy to sit back in his seat and blush guiltily. "Yeah, I was meant to ask you if you wanted…"

"Yes, I'd like that a lot."

"Cool." They said that together and giggled, causing Helga to make silent retching motions. "I guess we can try dating football-head, since our best friends are doing it…"

The nonchalant shrug hid her true emotions very well. In fact, no-one would ever be able to tell that inside a nuclear explosion had set off in her heart and the effects were radiating across her entire body like a shockwave of joy. While she was busy Arnold has time to reflect on what he'd been thinking about in his room all weekend, when he wasn't with his parents. He remembered when she told him about Summer, and saved him drowning in the greenhouse. He remembered when she found his hat and when Grandma died how she was so helpful with the funeral and didn't tease or bully him for the entire week. He remembered her taking the journal in the hopes of keeping him safe by finding his parents on her own. He remembers talking to Mr Hyunh's daughter who'd visited over the weekend, and finding out that the girl who'd helped him that Christmas to find her was the only grouch, pink-wearing mean girl he'd ever known and loved.

It was Helga. So much of his happiness was thanks to Helga. She came through for him when nobody else could and never asked for anything in return, and that's why he'd decided to dedicate himself to her, it was the least he could do after all.

THE END.

Or is it…

It pretty much is, this last part is more like a small continuation to fill my need to carry on with fluff… I was pretty sad to see how fast it took to write this and now it's almost ending so yaay but awww :) :(

Part 9

Helga poked her head around the corner of the school corridors, making sure the coast was clear before running to her locker. As fast as she could her locker combination was dialed in and the door wrenched open. She pulled all her books out and slammed it shut before hightailing it back the way she came. "Arnold should be on the other side of school at lunch now, which gives me enough time to…OOF!"

She slammed into another body before her butt hit the ground with a thud. Typical, just the person she was trying to avoid was now right in front of her, rubbing his forehead that only reached up to her chin while she avoided his gaze that seemed to have intensified over the last three months. "My bad football-head, but I gotta get to fifth period…" she gathered up her stuff before his overly-helpful goody two-shoes hands tried to grab something and was on her way again, letting out a little sigh.

She wasn't expecting to be pushed into the janitors closet with the door being slammed behind her by the aforementioned boy, who crossed his arms with an unusually serious expression.

"What's the big idea here bucko? Let me out now!" Helga ordered, pointing to the side where she wanted him to stand so she could leave. "Nuh-uh Helga." He replied, shaking his head. "I'm not moving until you tell me why you're avoiding me. I thought we were dating?"

"Doesn't mean we have to see each-other all the damn time." Helga argued, leaning against the far wall and crossing her arms as well. "You should give up on me now Arnoldo, go find a cookie-cutter cupcake looking girl and ask her to the movies. I heard Lila's still available, and she'll probably say yes if I put in the good word for you…"

"Seriously, you're trying to peddle me off to another girl?" Arnold shook his head and moved closer to her. "That's definitely not like you at all. I saw you talking to Phoebe today and she started crying. You haven't sat down at lunch or even looked at me for a week now and I want answers!"

When she didn't answer but looked away guiltily, he started growling. Their epic adventure at San Lorenzo had changed so many things. Helga still talked to animals, not that they had so many deep meaningful conversations but it was useful. Arnold still had the amulet, with the large green gem encrusted in its gold casing glowing and warm against his chest. Supposedly it held great power but he never wanted to wield it unless he absolutely had to, no matter how much Helga made him want to consider the telepathic abilities the amulet might have. He knew so much already though, about her complicated but deep love for _him_ , of all people. The last few months gave him a lot of time to think, and the more he thought the more everything made sense. Helga was a bully because it was the only way she wouldn't be ridiculed or ignored. She especially bullied him because his attention was what she craved the most. She came from a family consisting of a neglectful alcoholic mother, blowhard workaholic dad and overly-peppy over-achieving sister. That kind of situation would make anybody crazy.

When he thought about it more he saw how much sense everything made and hung his head. Glancing up at the still guilty-looking girl he shuffled forward and wrapped his arms around her, making her squeak. "I'm sorry for yelling Helga." He said. His growling sounded almost like a purr now, hands drawing back to her shoulders and pulling her down so he could reach her lips.

They'd started dating since returning from their trip to South America and at first things were going smoothly. Nobody dared say a word against them for fear of Ol' Betsy and the five avengers. It also helped that Gerald and Phoebe were also together so often with them, since double-dating wasn't quite so awkward and scary as a single pair.

The more time he spent with her the more relaxed Helga became, and Arnold realised when it came to him she was very lenient. She didn't give him any sign of affection in public for fear of ridicule, but when he grabbed her hand she shrugged and allowed him the small affection. She never hurt him physically but was still rough when it came to the other boys. He tried testing her limits once by putting an arm around her shoulders at lunch, making everyone there gasp as he kissed her on the cheek. She shrugged nonchalantly and continued eating her lunch while glaring at the gawking students to buzz off.

So now, reveling in the kiss they shared as he attacked her mouth in the only cute 10yr old way he knew how, he was in a daze when she pushed him back and stood in front of him with a sad expression.

"Next week I'm moving to Alaska to live with Olga. Child-services came to my house the other day, found my alcoholic mother passed out on the ground in a pool of her vomit and my dad was throwing things at the wall because Olga told him she was pregnant out of wedlock to some loser. They put me in custody with my sister, but she has her job out there… I'm sorry…"

And that was how they found themselves at the front of Helga's doorstep that sunny morning. She stood outside Olga's car- said girl was sat in front of the driver's wheel turned away from them as she chatted on the phone to her boyfriend and patted her swollen belly- in front of her two favourite people in the world. Gerald was there as well.

"I guess I'll miss you guys while I'm gone…" she said in her usual nonchalant way, shrugging on her purple jacket and crossing her arms as she regarded the sad expressions on Arnold and Phoebe's faces. Heck, even Geraldo looked sad to see her go.

"We'll miss you too. I want a phone-call as soon as you get there and once a week okay?" Phoebe lunged at her best friend and the waterworks came out as she hugged the blonde girl close.

"Come on now Pheebs, I need this shirt clean for the trip…" Helga pushed away from the shorter girl after a few seconds and offered her a tissue, which she gratefully accepted with an understanding smile. "Sorry, I couldn't help myself…"

"And you tall-hair boy, look after her for me would you?" Helga pointed at the dark-skinned boy with a gruff expression. "She's sitting next to you and Arnoldo in class and during lunches and sometimes you'll hang out on weekends. I better not hear anything less than glowing praise for your gentlemanly acts towards her, you hear me?"

Gerald rolled his eyes but held out his arms for her to walk into for a quick hug. "Sure Pataki, duly noted and have a good time in Alaska." He glanced to the side at his own best friend who'd been unusually quiet the whole exchange, then grabbed Phoebe's hand and dragged her around the corner to give the couple some privacy.

Helga chuckled a little at Phoebe's stricken face. "Those knuckleheads wanted to give us a moment huh? I'm glad."

She pulled him into a hug, tucking her chin into his shoulder and stroking his hair fondly. "Don't tell Phoebe, but I'll miss you the most…"

Arnold said nothing, but the feeling of wet tears on her own shoulder confirmed her worst fears and she drew away to grab another tissue. "Arnold! Please don't…."

"I-I'm sorry, I can't help it though…" it was only a couple of tears but he let them slip past his calm exterior and down his face. He only sniffled once before the tissues were shoved in his face. "Thanks."

"No problem. Just remember it won't be long, I'll be staying at Phoebe's during summer-break and we'll write to each-other or use the telephone okay?" Arnold nodded and sighed in both bliss and agony as she kissed his wide forehead one last time. "It's not the last time we'll see each-other, jeez football-head."

"Time to go baby-sister!" Olga called, pushing open the front door of her car. Helga sighed and got in, putting her belt on before turning back to Arnold. "I'll write to you soon okay?"

And they waved to each-other until he was a speck in the distance when the car zoomed off, before she turned to face her sister with tears in her eyes as well. A slight upturn of her lips Olga appears as she lifted a hand to swipe at one of her soaked cheeks. "You miss them already huh?"

"More than you could know sis…" Helga admitted, turning away to stare out the window.

It was a rainy Sunday morning when Alaskan airways' flight was set to touch down on New York soil, and for one particularly young man that meant the return of someone very special to his heart. He wanted to leave now and catch her plane before it even had a chance to think about landing, but instead he tapped his foot impatiently as his mother served him 6am pancakes while she, his father and grandfather eyed each-other with sly grins.

"You're eager to get to the airport, huh sweetie?"

"Sure am mom, sooner we leave the better."

Stella sat down opposite her son and shook her head, short brown locks elegantly swishing against her face as she sighed. "You know it doesn't change the fact that the plane gets in 3 hours from now at the earliest right?" Miles reminded him while pouring butter and syrup over his own pancakes. Arnold simply shrugged in reply as he tucked into his own breakfast with gusto.

"Boy, she must be one heck of a girl to have you so hog-tied shortman!" Phil cackled when his grandson choked on his last mouthful and patted his black to unclog his windpipe. "Serves you right for not chewing your food sonny…"

"Grandpa!" was all he could get out before taking a large gulp of orange juice. He stood up and wiped his mouth and streaming eyes, "I'm finished now. I'll just go wait in the car for you, mom…"

"'Kay honey" Stella replied, still enjoying her own meal while watching her son leave. "He's such a sweetheart, thank you Phil, for raising him to be such a gentleman…"

"You know I really had no hand in that, he's somehow managed to be the perfect grandson for fifteen years now without me even asking…" Phil admitted, setting down his coffee with a somber look. "But if there's anyone to thank for the way he was raised, it's Gertie."

"Your mom kept you two in-line so I can definitely believe she'd manage the same thing with our Arnold." Stella sighed again before picking up their plates and washing her hands. "See you soon love."

"Love you honey, safe trip." Miles kissed his wife's cheek before she left and the two men were left to bask in the early morning together. "When Arnold gets back son, what say us three go on a fishing trip out of town together?" Phil asked. "Yeah dad, that sounds like fun." Miles replied with a huge grin, thankful ten times over for having at least one parent to return to.

It was just getting on 9:30am and they'd been sitting there for well over an hour now. Arnold paced the entire length of the airport several times and was looking to do another lap when Phoebe and her father showed up with Gerald in tow. "Hey man!" the dark-skinned boy ran up to his best friend and extended a thumb to initiate their usual handshake. "Hey Gerald, hi Phoebe and Mr Heyerdahl!"

After the greetings were exchanged they moved back towards the seats where Stella was sitting content while reading a book. She put it away when the others came and they all sat down in a group and talked about their mornings. It passed the time, but outside the rising sun had disappeared behind a layer of dark cloud and the first few drops of precipitation streaked the windows. "It's raining…" Phoebe observed quietly so only Arnold could hear as they stood side-by-side near the glass and stared up into the heavens. "Normally, I'd say that's a bad omen, but it seems all the best things happen to us in the rain right? Saving the city during that incident with FTi, our fight in the jungle against La Sombra…"

"Those are two pretty big things that happened in the rain, yeah…" Arnold agreed. "It started raining as we landed back in Hillwood too. You know what though? The first time I met Helga it was raining, and she was covered in mud and crying… she looked so sad back then, I hope she's not still crying on the inside."

"Like you'd ever let her keep something like that from you…" Phoebe gently chastised him, "Look, it's landing now!"

Their plane wasn't very large, but it was to be expected coming from somewhere like Alaska. They watched as it rolled to a stop across the drenched tar-seal before the doors were opened and one by one passengers left the flight. Arnold scanned each body that left, his growing anticipation making him want to just run onto the airstrip and pull them out until he found the one he wanted.

But then he caught sight of one of the last to leave and his heart stopped. Even from such a far distance she was easy to recognise, her bright blonde hair grown longer and loose across her shoulders, long body covered in a tawny brown fur pelt over jeans and converse sneakers. She waited a few seconds for her sister to get out behind her and the two walked side-by-side into the airport through the terminal gates.

"HELGA!"

"PHEEBS!"

Both girls laughed as the smaller of the two launched herself into her best friend's arms and was spun around by the blonder of them. "It's good to see you, god you're looking cute."

"Thank you Helga, the contacts took some getting used to though." Phoebe blinked at the crystal blue eyes that twinkled back at her with mirth. Helga observed the long dark ponytail, minimal makeup and cute heels that added a few inches onto her small frame. There were also a few adjustments to her blue sweater dress so that it fit her curvy figure a little better, overall an improvement.

"And speaking of cute…" she whispered in a hushed tone, "Gerald, long time no see!"

She grappled Gerald's hand like a dude and he pulled her into a soft but short embrace. "Yo Helga, lookin' good!"

"You betcha, not too bad yourself though…" her eyes raked over the muscular but long arms underneath a sleeveless red hoodie with his signature 33 on the back, his long legs sticking past dark-blue basketball shorts and white long socks under black and white Air-Jordan's. His hair was shorter now and he looked a lot like Jamie-o at his age. Turning to the adults who were smiling just as brightly Helga greeted them with a handshake and hug as well, Stella especially squeezing her. While she'd been through all that Olga was following suit behind her, politely hugging and greeting all their friends.

Helga saved Arnold for last, their eyes locked as she looked at him over Stella's shoulder and smiled goofily. "Hey football-head…"

"Helga…" a sigh crossed his face for the smallest of moments before it turned back to his half-lidded grin as his arms reached around her and they hugged. She smelt spicy aftershave and soap while he smelt vanilla and coconut, then she snuck a kiss onto his cheek before stepping away in family-friendly fashion and addressing their group. "I don't know about you guys but I'm starving, can we get something to eat?"

'I knew we shouldn't have had breakfast…' Arnold thought begrudgingly as he agreed to her request, 'sighing blissfully when she grabbed his hand to hold on the walk to their cars.

"Of course you're welcome to stay with us for the next week!" Mr Heyerdahl exclaimed, patting both Olga's and Helga's shoulders as they sat in the first breakfast diner they could find and ordered stacks of waffles and bacon. "We have a guest bedroom for you Olga, and Helga can sleep with either you or Phoebe, but there's plenty of room for my second daughter..." he directed the comment at Helga which made her struggle to hold back a tear. "Thanks a lot Mr Heyerdahl."

"Thank you so much sir!" Olga squealed and pulled them into a hug before pulling out her phone. "I just need to tell Mark that he doesn't have to worry now that we've got somewhere to stay this week. We were planning on staying at a motel or something but you've saved our lives…"

"And where are you going next week?" Arnold asked as he sipped his coffee, taking one of Helga's blueberry waffles for himself. "We've got an apartment lined up near 5th and Broadway. Olga wants to wait for the furniture and Mark to get here though before we move in, and the locks and heating need to be installed but that all takes a week…"

"That's a lovely street, if you need any help with repairs we happen to be good with tools right Arnold?" Stella commented, winking at her son who nodded while smiling widely. Helga thought it sounded like they were trying to invite themselves into her and Olga's home or something but just shrugged it off and grabbed Arnold's under the table, squeezing it lightly. "Sounds good."

Phoebe and Gerald, who'd both gone to the bathroom, returned and took their seats in the booth. "We miss anything?" Gerald asked casually, eyeing up the largest stack of Belgian waffles before taking a large portion of it for himself and leaving the rest for Phoebe, who daintily took the remaining slices.

"Just that me and Helga will be staying at the Heyerdahl's residence for the next week." Olga replied. "Talk about an extended slumber party, right Pheebs?" Helga said, grinning as the girl once again threw herself on the blonde and hugged her for dear life.

Arnold was sad to see Helga leave with the Heyerdahl's and Gerald opted to ride with him instead, giving the sister's more room in their small buggy-car. 'It's only for a little while…'

When they dropped Gerald off and returned home, it was to the usual lively boarding house. Arnold was busy for hours trying to fix the boarders' broken appliances and relationships alike. When he was finished, marching up to his attic-bedroom with an exhausted smile and falling on his bed, he stared up at the ceiling and met a most unusual sight.

'Come up with me.' The sign read, a piece of notebook paper written in purple ink, with stones on top to lie it flat against the ceiling glass just so he could read it while lying down. Arnold was curious, nervous and excited all at once.

He stood up and unlatched the window poking his head out to look around the rooftop. "Could it really be… it is! Helga!"

"Hey Arnold."

She stood there with her purple jacket on and hands behind her back. She'd changed the unusual fur-pelt from that morning for a pink dress with a red stripe in the middle that looked eerily similar to her old sweater dress. She also wore a pink bow, but it looked cuter without the pigtails as her long hair flowed behind her back.

"What are you doing here? I mean not that I'm not happy to see you but I…"

He was a little gobsmacked, but the soft smile on her face mostly dispelled any objections he may have had and he got up the rest of the way to meet her. That was when he noticed the Christmas lights lining the roof behind them, with a fancy dinner-table set up behind her and a picnic basket in the middle. There was even a heater glowing under the table to keep away the chill and his old record player lay in the background, poised and ready to play whatever record was in there.

"You know, it's been a long time since we went on a date…" Helga said carefully, hands behind her back as she teasingly walked to one side of the table. "So I thought that maybe, if you were willing, we could… well…"

"Helga, you really did this all for me?" Arnold asked in wonder, taking the seat opposite her. She nodded, "is that okay?"

She wasn't prepared for the mockingly girlish squeal as he fanned his face and pretended to swoon while laughing. "Alirght bucko! No need to pull that over me…" Helga commented as she cracked up at the overdramatic display. He had one wrist over his forehead and looked ready to faint. "Nooo seriously stop!" Helga snorted as he stood up and they both had to wipe the tears from their eyes. "I never knew you had that in you football-head…"

"You did something that boyfriend's usually do in the relationship Helga so I felt the need to counter it, and while it's different… who really cares what other people would think anyways, right?"

"Right Arnoldo, we're great just the way we are…"

'Although next time I'll definitely be the one setting up the date and being an awesome boyfriend.' Arnold thought as he bit into his sandwiches specially prepared by her and held her hand with Dino Spumoni playing in the background. 'And the only fair repayment would be to conspire with her sister and set something up in their apartment…'

After the meal of sandwiches and yahoo they cleared the table and moved the heater to the edge of the roof, where a couch was already placed in such a way that they could watch the sunset.

'What a perfect moment…' Arnold thought as he watched Helga who was watching the sunset. Their hands intertwined and shoulders bumped together, just as it disappeared beneath the distant ocean their heads turned and lips met clumsily.

"Arnold, I just wanted to say that I love you."

"I love you too Helga!"

And that was the end for them. Like seriously, the real end.


End file.
